The Boy That Changed It all
by Sparkacorn
Summary: Annabeth was furious with her boyfriend. Then she meets someone who changes her life... at Target. Will it be for the better or for the worse? NOT as lame as it sounds. Please just give it a try. No demigods what so ever, but there will be mentions of a camp.
1. Prologue

**So this is my first fanfic ever, and I'm really excited to share it with you all. Please read and review!**

"Luke?" Annabeth called, "can you come here for a minute?"

"Yeah, sure" my boyfriend answered, "What's the matter?" I rolled my eyes at the sight of his appearance. It was two in the afternoon, and he was still in his pajamas, something that always happens, unless he had work, then he was bustling around, with a suit and tie on, and would have been up since like 4am.

"Well I was wondering, since you and I barely spend time together anymore, even though I've moved in" I mumbled the last part, and rolled my eyes again, "I was thinking that you and I could do something together today."

"Hmm," he looked sad, like it pained him to say what he was about to say. "Annabeth," he said slowly. But before he could say anything I knew what my answer was going to be. _I can't, I have work, but maybe tomorrow night..._ He _always works._ What happened to the Luke I knew? The Luke I knew was carefree, and worked two part-time jobs yet, he still managed to spend time with me. Now that he was the CEO of a big company, we barely spent time together. Heck, I think the last time we truley had fun and enjoyed eachother's presence was _two weeks ago_.

I had had it, no more was I going to take this nonsense! I slapped him on the face and screamed. "Fine! If this is how you treat your girlfriends, then no wonder you don't have any. I'm done! I packed some stuff and stormed out, ignoring Luke as he called my name. I didn't know where I was going, but I didn't care right now. Luke+Annabeth=over...

 **Soooo what'd you think?! Was it good enough? Don't worry guys, this is going to be a percabeth story. I'm not going to scar you for life by making Luke Annabeth's boyfriend. be warned though, Percy won't come till later. Oh and sorry that it was so short, I'll definitely have longer chapters though. Please review guys, I already have the technically first chapter written, so if I see maybe three reviews, I'll type it up and it should be up by tomorrow.**


	2. What Are Friends For?

**I have an excuse! The reason I haven't updated on two weeks is because... Drumroll please... I've been so busy! Yes yes I know, that's everybody's excuse but hey, I'm not just making this up! The weekend and week that followed after starting the first chapter, was especially crazy. My family and I went to North Carolina to see Biltmore castle (beautiful place by the way.) That Tuesday was my older sisters' birthday (she turned 19 in case your wondering) The day after my sisters' birthday, I went to Annapolis to see a French ship called L'Hermione with a friend. We waited for two hours to board that ship. TWO HOURS! In 90 degree weather, with no shade, no place to sit, and practically nothing to do! I guess it was worth it though. But the humidity didn't exactly help... Thankfully I was able to cool off at the pool. Just yesterday I went to my friend's house and we swam in her pool to spend some quality time with each other before I leave for France. I leave in 1 week, so I might (and I emphasize might) update before then. I don't know if I'll be able to though cause my family plans to take a trip to L'Hermione (this time it will be in Pennsylvania). sometime before I leave and I go to Annapolis again tomorrow with my mom to help her with something. Yay I get to go see a ship I just saw. SO much fun. So yeah.**

 **I want to thank the two people personally who did review. I know I did say three reviews and I would update, well so much for that. I figured it was about time that I did update though, God knows when I will update again. I'm going to dedicate this chapter to the Guest reviewer who reminded me that Annabeth thinks things through, I hadn't thought about that and hopefully, she will be better throughout the story. I shall no longer keep** you **waiting, off to the story! YAY**

As I pulled into the parking lot of my favorite store, Target, I sat and thought for a couple of minutes about what had happened yesterday.

When I left Luke's place, I called up my four best friends, Thalia, Piper, Juniper and Hazel telling them to meet me at Thalia's house. I didn't bother to explain but I must have sounded really heart broken on the phone because they had all arrived before I did, which was a good thing, that meant that I wouldn't have to repeat myself 3,000 times.

When I pulled into the driveway of Thalia's giant house, I immediately got out and went to the door. I hadn't even knocked, not that I normally would anyway, when Piper opened the door and practically yelled "Omigosh-Annabeth-what-happened?!" she said in one breath, then she pulled me into a bear hug and dragged me inside. That was one of the things that I admired about her. She was the emotional one of our group, and always knew how to make me feel better.

As I told the girls my story their emotions ranged from shock, disbelief, rage, and sadness. When I had finished, Thalia was the first to let her anger out. She got up and started pacing while yelling "Luke, I swear to all the gods, I am going to kill you! You are going to see what happens when you mess with the wrong girl!" she said very angrily. Piper got up to make sure Thalia didn't do anything rash and end up breaking something, while Juniper got up to give me a hug "Are you okay?" she asked. I just nodded because I didn't think I could speak. I knew that if I did, the tears that were threatening to spill, would. She saw my face and pulled me in for another hug. I hadn't cried on the way here, or when I told Luke that I was done, so why was I crying now? Stupid emotions.

Throughout all the chaos that had ensued, Hazel was unusally quiet. Usually she would have been right up here with Juniper trying to comfort me or with Piper trying to get Thalia to calm down. Hazel had that effect on people. I looked around and didn't see her doing either, she was so quiet none of us had noticed until now. In fact she was still in the same place as an hour ago, but this time, she looked thoughtful. I tried to get Piper's attention, but she was to busy attempting to get Thalia to drop the plate she was about to throw. Unfortunately, she failed and Thalia threw the plate in my direction. Fortunately for me however, my reflexes were pretty good, and I managed to duck my head as the flying plate smashed against the wall. Although it was quite unnecessary, for the plate was aimed unintentionally in my direction, but it missed completely.

When Piper finally got Thalia to calm down with a little help from Juniper, I looked at Hazel. "What do you think?" I asked her, knowing that she would give an honest answer. Her reply was one that I hadn't thought about. "Annabeth, are you sure you didn't over react a little bit?" she said hesitantly. Opps. It was a good thing Hazel was around, if not we all would have gone and shown that boy some manners on how to treat a girl! I sighed, and replied, "I guess I did over react a little by slapping him..." I paused when I heard the gasps. "You slapped him?!" all of my friends said in unison. "Yes! I was extremely angry, wouldn't you have done the same thing?" I asked them. They looked at each other and nodded. "See?!" was my only response.

"I guess I should go ever there and apologize." I said after a minute of silence. Before I could do anything though Hazel spoke up and said "That's not what I meant Annabeth. I'm just asking you if you are sure that you want to end this relationship. If not then I suggest that you wait a couple of days before you act, see how you feel then." She did have a point. I wasn't exactly sure that I wanted to take Luke back, I mean, we probably would end up the same way.

"Ohh, play hard to get, I like the way you think Hazel." Piper said with and attempted wink in my direction. Of course Piper can't wink so that made it all the funnier. "Thankyou guys." I said once all of the laughing had died down. "For what?" was the response that Juniper gave. I thought about it before replying, "For always being there for me, for crying with me in times of need, and for making me laugh when I'm feeling down. I really needed that." The only response was from Thalia who said "What are friends for?" Which then made us laugh even more after there was silence that followed. And that was how we ended up the rest of the night, laughing hysterically, eating popcorn with ice cream and watching our favorite movies. Just like old times.

 **And that's it for now folks! Hope you liked it the characters felt like normal. I know some people have a way with their wording that makes the characters feel different. Not that its a bad thing, but I just wanted the story to feel like normal. Alrighty then, Read and review!**


	3. The People of Target

**Hi people, so know I said that I didn't know when my next update would be, so I decided to make it now, cause the next few days I doubt that I will have any time on my hands. My mom might throw a "Bon voyage" party for both my grandma and me, (my grandma is leaving with me when I go to France) but in order for this to happen, I need to do some MAJOR cleaning around the house. Which means that I'm not going to have any time on my hands.**

 **Anyways, I want to thank the people who are now following my story, and the one person who favorited it. They encouraged me to update sooner, and made my already good day, even better. So, here's to the story!**

When I finally exited my car to go to into Target, it was much later then I realized. I had ended up falling asleep from staying up so late last night, and the car was so cozy, while outside... Brr I got the chills just thinking about it. I had left Thalia's house at around 1:30 in the afternoon today, and it was now 3:00. Oh well, I guess I would have to make my shopping trip short, maybe get a few clothing items, (most of my clothes were still at Lukes'. I had only packed a bag with a few clothes, with some sentimental items) and some food. I planned on staying with Thalia for the next few weeks, until things got sorted out.

When I got to the clothing aisle, I immediately noticed a few things that caught my eyes. First a soft a grey sweater, with an owl on the front, I loved owls, and the grey defiantly brought out my eyes. I then found my size and decided to pair that with some dark skinny jeans, that weren't to tight to make me uncomfortable, I would wear that with some boots, and to top it all off I added an owl necklace that would look great with the owl earnings my mother had given me so many years ago.

Deciding that I had a good enough outfit for now, I kept shopping for my other necessities for about half an hour. I was just about to go to the food aisle, when I noticed a women with a three year old boy in her arms. I didn't think much about it at the time, but when she passed me again, about three minutes later, for some reason, she was without the little boy. Maybe she was a babysitter and had met his parents here to drop him off or something like that. Yeah that seemed like a logical explanation. But still, something didn't feel right. I decided to ignore that nagging voice in my head, knowing that I had a time limit on my hands. I wanted to get back from shopping before the sun went down, which was in about an hour and 15 minutes.

Because I had time, and I had finished shopping, I figured that I might as well go investigate the situation. I wouldn't get involved if there was something going on, but I thought that I would just make a run around the store, searching for the little boy, and whoever else. Now, if I could only remember what he looked like... Aha, that's right he was wearing a blue winter coat, with a black hat, scarf and gloves and if I remembered correctly he was wearing jeans with some worn out shows. I also do believe that he had light blonde hair with dark blue eyes, no that wasn't right, he had hazel eyes.

I was just about to give up with my search, when I heard a the yell of what sounded like a three year old. That got my attention. I turned in the direction that I had heard the noise and what I found had astonished me. A man with a black ski mask on was trying to take the child! Wait was he trying to take the child, or was he just someone who recognized the child and wanted to bring him home? "Get over here you!" The strange man said in a gruff voice. Well that ruled out that question of him being a nice man. Before I sprang into action, I took a picture of the man, so that police could use it to help them, not that it would do much of anything, he was after all in a ski mask.

"Omigosh, you found him! Thank you so much for finding my son! I don't know what I would have done if I had lost him." I said in the most convincing motherly voice I could muster. To make my act even more convincing, I ran up to the little boy, gave him a big hug, and started fussing over him. Thankfully the kid was either smart enough to to know that a) I was not his mom and b) he should play along, or he did think that I was his mother, but was just to confused to mention the case, I was grateful to him that he didn't say anything, if he had, I would've been doomed. Maybe he wasn't three after all? "Y-you're his mother?" The man stuttered. "Yes, I am, and I would appreciate it if you would take that mask off, we are in a heated store, so there is no need for the mask. Your'e scaring Benjamin." I didn't know if that was the boy's name but it was the first one I could think of.

My act must of worked because the man just ran away, not even bothering to take his mask off, like I had asked. Ah well, at least I got a picture of him. The police could use that to determine his height, and I knew for a fact that he had blue eyes, kind of similar to Luke's, and he was a white male. In fact the more I thought about it, the more the stranger reminded me of my ex. However, the voice was so different. Even if the man had disguised his voice, I had heard all of Luke's different voice impressions. None that I remembered were his, hmmm. This was getting stranger by the minute.

Something jostled me out of my thoughts, was that the rustle of paper? I looked around to find the little boy trying to get into a bag of candy. I took in my surroundings and noticed that we were in the candy aisle. Why didn't I think of that before! Little kids are attracted to candy like bees are to pollen. The kid was probably trying to open it when the masked men tried to grab him. Uh-oh. Hopefully he didn't open it. Before he could do any more damage to the bag, I said to him "Are you sure you want to open that? If you do, then you have to pay for it, it costs... 4 dollars. Do you have 4 dollars?"

My talking succeeded in making him stop trying to get into that candy, at least for a minute, but that was all I needed. He turned and looked at me saying "Who are you?" Yup I was right, he was three, five year olds didn't talk like toddlers, there was a big difference. The poor kid had yet to grow out of his sing-song voice that had a touch of curiosity in it. "I'm Annabeth, I'm the one who saved you from that bad man. Now why don't you come with me and we can go and find your mommy. Would you like that?" I said hopefully. The little boy looked up with a smile on his face at the mention of his mother. He glanced around as if looking for her but then seemed to remember that she wasn't there. "My mommy gone", the little kid said. "Well then why don't we go and look for her then. She must be very worried about you." Was my response. That got a smile out of him and he took my hand in his pulling me out of the candy aisle.

Although I knew his mom wasn't going to be in the store, I at least wanted to make an effort for this kid. I didn't like referring to him as "kid" but I didn't have a choice. Names made things all the more real, if I knew his name then I would get attached, and a child was the last thing I needed right now. Especially a toddler, that would make things all the more difficult.

When we had finished searching for his mom, I told the unidentified child that we should go to the manager of the store, perhaps he would know what to do. The kid agreed and I asked an employee where the manager's office was. The person didn't even ask questions, just took one look at me and pointed in the proper direction, which was the opposite of where we were going. We headed over there and I was soon able to locate the manager's office.

When we got to the door that was labeled "Manager" I knocked. "What?!" Was the angry response. "I-uh need your help" was my shocked reply. Weren't managers supposed to at least be cheerful when it came to customers? I waited a second and was about to leave when the door opened, out came a man that was in his mid forties early fifties. He had a wrinkled red shirt on with a name tag that said Gabe, and he smelled like alcohol. I was standing maybe two feet from him and could smell it from here. Yuck. How'd this guy get the job of a manager anyways? "What did you say you needed?" Gabe said in a much more cheerful voice. Perhaps the angriness was from my imagination, I was having a very strange long day. "Um I think this boy's parents left him here."

 **Ok that wasn't my best writing I know, I could've made a better finish for this chapter, but I felt that if I added any more it would be too long. A lot of people don't like long chapters, (I do but that doesn't matter) so I figured 1,500 words was enough. Plus if I kept writing this chapter it would probably get boring. I had originally planned on not including this, heck I just made it up as I went along but I liked it better then my original, so I included. Anyways, hoped you liked it and as always, please review.**


	4. The Accident

**Hey guys! How's life? I'm extremely sorry for not updating lately, its just that I recently came home from France and school's about to start so things are getting hectic. My mom just got a job teaching french at a public school and she just started last week, and now my little sister is going to that same public school and she starts school tomorrow. I still have two weeks left of break, and I don't even know what classes I'm going to be in. But that's the story of my life, the future is a mystery, and in my opinion, the people who try to solve it end up getting the wrong answer. So many plans go wrong. Sorry again for not updating and to make it up to you guys, I'm going to post two chapters instead of one. So, here you go.**

"Why don't you leave him here and I'll take care of the punk?" Gabe said. I didn't want to leave the poor unnamed kid with this creep, but I was exhausted and the alcohol fumes were starting to get to me. The next thing I know, I'm leaving the child with the manager, and left.

As I exited the store with my groceries, I kept thinking about what Hazel had said. I came to the conclusion that she was right. I had definitely over reacted, but I decided that I should wait until I made the final decision on weather or not I should go back to Luke. I pulled out my phone to check the time, and found two things. 1) I was still on time with my schedule, and 2) I had 6 missed calls from Luke. I had turned my phone off while I was shopping so that I would not be disturbed. I entered my car, a mini cooper, started the car, and dialed.

The logical part of me was screaming at me to not do it, but I couldn't resist the temptation. I had to do it, I had to talk to him and get my feelings out. Before I could back out, I dialed the number and waited for Luke to pick up. While I was waiting, I almost chickened out. My brain was telling me "What happened to not calling him yet? What happened to waiting?"

I was about to hang up, when he finally answered. "Annabeth?" I didn't answer for a couple of seconds and waited until he was about to hang up until I finally exploded. "WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?! YOU KNOW HOW MUCH I WANTED TO SPEND THE WEEKEND WITH YOU! Ever since you inherited your dad's company, you and I spend less and less time together. I'm tired of that, and I think I want to take a break for now. I'm not sure but I'll let you know by the end of the week." I had said my part and hung up.

I needed to talk to Thalia right away. So as soon as I had said my piece, I dialed her number. After two rings, she answered. "Hey Annabeth, you got everything you need?" she said almost as soon as I had said "I talked to Luke" We giggled and she told me that I could go first. I told her what had just happened and just as I was finishing, I screamed. AAHHHH! I tried to swerve, but then everything went black.

 _Thalia's POV_

"Annabeth?" I said after I had heard the scream. "Hello? ANNABETH?! Are you there? Hold on, I'm calling 911. Just hang on." Gods I was so worried. My hands were shaking as I dialed the number.

"Hello what's your emergency?" a voice said on the other end. "My friend, she's been in an accident. You have to help her." I said with tears welling up in my eyes. "Miss, you have to calm down. I can't help her unless you do that. Understand?" I didn't want to calm down, but I had to help Annabeth. "Okay" I said once I had somewhat calmed down. "Now, do you know the location?" the person on the other end said. "She was on her way home after shopping from Target. That's all I know." I responded. "Was she talking to you from her phone? If so, I can track her cell phone if you give me the number." I gave her the number and hung up once she told me that paramedics were on the way.

Once I had finished with that, I called everyone. Piper, Hazel, Juniper, her parents. I didn't want to call Luke, but I figured that he deserved to know. Even after what he had done to her.

 **CLIFF HANGER! I'll be posting the next chapter sometime today. So I'll talk to you then. Bye for now!**


	5. The Hospital Visit

**Here's the next chapter, hope you enjoyed the last one and will like this one, and THANK YOU to all of the people who reviewed on the last chapter alone! They meant so much to me!**

I woke up to the sound of a heart monitor. Why was I hearing this? What did it mean? Was I in a hospital? I couldn't dwell on that too long because just then, my head decided it wanted to hurt. And a lot at that to. I groaned and slowly turned my head, opening my eyes at the same time. I found myself looking at a familiar face. Luke? What was he doing here? I could've sworn that I had broken things off with him. If Luke was here than could I have imagined the whole thing? The last thing that I remember was being in my cooper. At last it dawned on me. I was in the hospital. I had had an accident.

"Luke...?" I tried to speak but my mouth felt like wood. He had been asleep, but jerked awake at the sound of my voice. He always was a light sleeper. "Annabeth! You're awake! I can't believe it!" Luke said like a child at christmas. And why is it so hard to believe that I am awake? "I'll be right back, I'm going to go and get the doctor. Don't go anywhere. Not that you can, but just don't move."

When Luke left, I took the time to take in my surroundings. There was a window to my right, and a door to my left, and on both sides of my bed were nightstands. They both had a bunch of flowers and even more balloons that said "Get Well Soon." Next to one of the nightstands was the chair that Luke had sat and fallen asleep in. All over the floor were more flowers and balloons. There was even a giant teddy bear, that looked so adorable I just wanted to cuddle it right then and there.

Luke finally returned, jumping up and down like a little kid, but thankfully he was with a doctor. I don't think I would have been able to handle his jumpiness without ruining his good mood. The doctor saw my annoyance and sent Luke on a quest to find the others and tell them that I had finally awoken. So he did just that, running down the hall, yelling "SHE'S AWAKE, SHE'S AWAKE!" Probably waking up all of the patients of the hospital.

"Alrighty then Annabeth, I'm Dr. Will Solace, how do you feel now that you've awakened?" He asked me. I hesitated, not sure if I could speak due to my mouth feeling like it was turning to sawdust. "Honestly," I winced because I sounded like a frog, "Not so great" The doctor handed me a cup of water as he thought out his response. "That is to be expected considering you've been in coma for almost two weeks." I almost spit out my water that I had been gulping down, but before I could ask any questions, my family and friends stormed into the room with Thalia leading the stampede.

"ANNABETH CHASE! WHAT WERE YOU THINKING GETTING IN AN ACCIDENT LIKE THAT?!" Thalia yelled "YOU COUL'VE GOTTON YOURSELF KILLED! And then I would have had to deal with these weirdos by myself." She said gesturing to the group once she had finished. "Nice to see you too Thalia." I said calmly, though personally, I still thought I sounded like a frog. "Gods Annabeth, what'd you do? Exchange your vocal chords for a frogs'?" Thalia said. Apparently I wasn't the only one who thought that. "Alright Thalia, that's enough, poor girl has had a lot going on lately and doesn't need any more of your pestering." My other best friend, Piper, said. "Yes Mom." Thalia said, her voice dripping with sarcasm. Glad to see that some things haven't changed. "Hey Piper," I said. "How are you feeling Annabeth?" She asked. "Like I told the doctor, not so great. But hey, I survived. I barely even remember the accident. Does anyone know what happened?"

Juniper got a sad look on her face and at first I thought I had hit someone, but then why was she the only one looking that way? Hazel was the one that told me what had happened. "You hit a deer Annabeth. No one was severely hurt except the deer, which died on impact by the way, and other than that everything is fine." That explains the look. Though Juniper was more of a plant person, she loved any kind of animal. "Oh Annabeth!" Juniper said grabbing me in for a bear hug which Hazel and Piper joined in to. I had a feeling Thalia wanted to as well but then her pride was probably preventing her from doing so. "We were so worried! Don't ever do something like that again! If you do, I'll smack you into the next universe." **(I know, that was so cheesy)**

"Annabeth! Annabeth!" I heard two male voices call from somewhere in the crowd. Bobby and Matthew, my two half brothers, were 6 years old but I sometimes wondered if they were younger. They made their way over to me and started to bombard me with questions. "Are you okay?" Asked Bobby. "Did you get a booboo?" Questioned Matthew. They tried climbing the bed to give me a hug but were too short so my dad and stepmom had to help them up. Once they were satisfied with their painful but well meaning hug, I talked to my dad. He gave me that look and told me that I should have been more careful. It is against the law to call and/or text while driving. My mother had died that way, and I had given him one heck of a scare.

We all talked for about another half hour but I was starting to get tired. Hazel noticed this and rushed everybody out. She also told me that I should talk to Luke before I went back to sleep. You would think that after two weeks of nothing but rest, I wouldn't be tired, but I was.

Everyone except Luke had finally left. We needed to talk, and I needed to sort out what was going on in my brain. I didn't know if I had officially broken things off with him, but I would eventually find out. Luke cleared his throat, jostling me out of my thoughts. "Annabeth, I'm so sorry. You wouldn't have gotten into that accident if it wasn't for me. I would never forgive myself if you had died. Please forgive me." I didn't know what to say. "Luke, don't blame yourself, it wasn't your fault. I got into that accident because I was on the phone. That law is there for a reason. You should be thankful that no one was severely hurt, or even killed." We were silent for a minute before Luke spoke again. "Yeah but I was the reason you were on the phone in the first place. If I had just chosen to spend that weekend with you, you never would have broken up with me, and then you wouldn't have been at Target that day."

Omigosh, I totally forgot! What happened to that little boy? Was he okay? Did his mom end up coming back for him? "No! If I hadn't been at Target, I wouldn't have me Benjamin." I said, recalling that fateful day. Luke looked confused and hurt. Oh that's right, no one new about the kid except me. "I'm almost too afraid to ask, but who is Benjamin?" he said. "To make a long story short, Benjamin is this 3 year old kid that I met while I was shopping. He was in the candy aisle trying to steal some, but a man was also trying to kidnap him at the same time." Luke looked even more confused but also had a hint of relief in his face. Why was he relieved? I just told him that somebody had attempted to kidnap a child! Now I was confused. "Wait what? Some kid was trying to steal candy but didn't realize he was about to get kidnapped?! Where were his parents?" Now he looked concerned. Who knew so many emotions could happen within 5 minutes. So I told him the rest of the story, and had just finished when a nurse came in and announced that visiting hours were now over and that it was time to leave.

After Luke had left, I didn't fall asleep right away. I mean I was tired, but my thoughts kept me awake. Now that we had somewhat talked, where did that leave us in our relationship? Are we officially over? Or would we get back together and have things go back to normal? But did I really want normal? And what about the little kid? Why couldn't I get him out of my head? I knew he was going to have some sort of impact on my life in the future, but I didn't know what. How would my family and friends react to him? AARGH! So many questions!

 **Alrighty guys, that's it for now! Like I stated earlier, I'm going to have a lot of free time during the next two weeks so I should be able to update soon. But if not than let me just say: REVIEW PLEASE! And that wasn't a request :P**


	6. That Akward Moment

**... I know that you guys are probably mad at me due to me not updating in the past couple of weeks. Honestly everything has been so chaotic. I just found out that one of my best friends is bi, she's been keeping this from me for over a year, that one best friend is going through a really rough time with her family, our friends and battling depression, and my mom is going to Louisiana for the weekend to go see her boyfriend's son graduate. I'm just like it's only the beginning of the year! Why does there have to be so much DRAMA? And to top it all off, I'm taking three honors classes, and two pre-ap classes, meaning a bunch of homework. Don't get me wrong, I'm loving it, but I hate that I go to bed really late at night because my homework still isn't finished and the internet is acting up (I go to a private school and we use iPads instead of textbooks and paper.) Plus Homecoming was that week, and I was under even more stress than usual because Interim's were coming out then, meaning I had to have no less than a C+ in all of my classes in order to go to the dance. And if I didn't go (which btw I did, and I also brought my sister) then all the money I spent on that dress while I was in France would have been for nothing.**

 **And that was just for the beginning of October...**

 **Alright, I'm done bothering you with my problems, I'll let you read now.**

 **P.s If you have any concerns with the past chapters, let me know through a review, or you could always P.M me, I've just opened that up.**

 **P.p.s. This chapter is basically going to be sort of like a diary entry of her thoughts in her brain. It's not an actual diary entry, just an entry that she has in her head. She keeps track of her thoughts that way. I'm not going to have one of these all the time, but I feel like this is something Annabeth would do during her spare time. So here we go, walking the Yellow Brick Road into Annabeth's brain.**

It's been almost a week since my accident, and I'm really itching to leave the hospital. I'm bored, nothing is on tv, and the books that the girls and Luke bring me are great, but you can only read a book so many times a day before you get tired of it. I want to go back to work. I'm an architecturalist, and a few days ago, I had this really great idea, and I can't get it out of my head. I would tell someone to go get me a drawing board and some paper, but that would add to all the things I'd have to transfer from my room to the car, and back to my apartment. Plus, I keep all my things for my projects in a specific place in my apartment under lock and key. I know, it's weird, but some of my designs, well, they're more personal than others, and I know that if I showed them to anyone, they'd bring the drawings straight to my boss and he'd show them to his boss and so on, until it reached the big boss, and then I'd get called to his office and we'd have this big long, yet awkward talk about him promoting me and honestly I don't want a promotion. By then the news that I created something "great" would be the talk of the week and then I'd be the popular person for a week and then people would start talking bad about me and... well you get the point, it's just not something I would want. Believe me, I know, but that's a story for another time.

My thoughts were interrupted when I noticed that someone had come into the room. I didn't know who it was but, for some reason, the person looked familiar. He was about my age and had curly hair, a goatee, some bad acne and kind of walked with a I noticed another person standing next to the somewhat familiar man, and I saw the little boy from Target. I couldn't believe it! There he was, standing right in front of me.

"Hi", the man with the goatee said. Something about the way he spoke sounded yet again, familiar, and I couldn't get it out of my mind.

"I'm Grover, and this is Ryan, we just wanted to..." Grover sentence was never finished because just then, the little boy who I now knew was called Ryan, jumped up on the bed.

Either he really liked me, even though he had just "properly" met me, or Ryan remembered me.

"Wow," Grover said, "he must really like you."

"Actually, he and I already know each other." I said with a smirk.

Grover got this shocked look on his face. I got this really strong feeling that I knew him from somewhere but it couldn't place where, and it was driving me absolutely crazy! Then it struck me, I knew him from camp! He and I had went to this same summer camp when we were in elementary school together. It was weird seeing him like this today.

"But how?!" He said, but I got the feeling he somehow already knew. Ryan must have mentioned something to Grover about what happened the day I met him. But what happened to the other guy? Gabe was it? Maybe Grover was his older brother? Nah, that didn't seem right. I'll ask him about it later.

I told him about how I witnessed Ryan being abandoned and how he was almost kidnapped, and how I had brought him to the manager, but he didn't seem too concerned. Grover's expression hardened when I told him this. For some reason he was genuinely upset.

"Oh that man! I'm glad he was fired. He deserved it for what he did." Grover grumbled. Wait what? How did he know that "Gabe" was fired? What was going on? Why were they even here in the first place? Was Ryan a patient here at the hospital like me? Or was he just visiting? Did that mean they had found his relatives, or someone that he knew? All these questions were swirling around in my head. But before I could ask one, Grover started talking.

"So how did you get here Annabeth?" Grover asked. "What happened?"

"Well let's just say I got into an accident. With a deer. While I was on the phone. Talking to Thalia. Just a couple ribs broken and my leg's broken to." I answered. Yuck, my mom would have scolded me, incomplete sentences, but hey, I was in an accident. Who cares about grammar right now? That's right, only mom.

He got another wild look on his face. "Wait you know Thalia?! Thalia Grace?"

"The one and only" I answered with a smile. Finally a lightbulb went off in his head. "Annabeth? Is that really you?" Honestly how could he not have realized it by now?

"Of course it's me, who else would it be Grover?"

"I just didn't recognize you Annabeth. But I don't know why I didn't realize it before, your grey eyes aren't that common around here." Well, yeah, there's only a few of us.

After Grover and I caught up about old times, we came upon the topic of how he came across Ryan and what they were doing here.

"So how did you meet Ryan?" I asked him.

"Well, let's just say that I'm the new manager of Target. It's not what I would have liked as a job, but it's paying the bills. For now. And the old manager had just kept him in his office, barely feeding him and not even bothering to take care of him. It was a while before anybody found out. Could have killed the kids if the boss didn't find out about the embezzling. And then I got the job and we didn't want to turn Ryan in to the social services just yet. I'm not sure why, but he's been with us ever since. I have been taking care of him, but my employees and I have worked out a schedule. Some people will watch over him on certain weeks, it adds to their payroll and gives them community service hours. I usually come by to the hospital to come visit the patients here. You have no idea how many of them are lonely. I keep them company and had nowhere to take Ryan so I just brought him with me. You should have seen the smiles coming off these people when they saw him. It was heartwarming."

We sat in comfortable silence for a while, occasionally making small talk, and then another person came into the room. Another person who looked vaguely familiar. He was tall, handsome and muscular. Raven black hair that was all over the place, but he had this smile, and this way about him, I don't know what it was. I couldn't decide if I liked him just yet. Sure he was good looking, but he had this cocky look on him, and well, I know looks can be deceiving.

"Hey Grover..." He started to say, and then he noticed me and paused, then he frowned. What was his problem? "You almost ready to go?" The unidentified man asked Grover. Before Grover could respond, Luke came into the room. Wow, it was getting crowded in here.

"Luke?!" The guy that obviously knew Luke but didn't like him said this in a strange and hostile way. "Percy." Luke said to the now identified stranger. He was calm, but you could tell he didn't like whoever this Percy was. Now, more than ever, I wanted to leave the hospital.

 **Alrighty peeps. That's it for now, hope you liked it, even though I left it on a cliff hanger. You'll have to wait to find out what happens next cause I have no idea when I'm going to update next. R &R. Now.**


	7. Recollections

**Ok guys, I'm trying, I seriously am, that's why I'm doing this on the bus. But with little kids screaming and yelling, it's not easy. Plus it's early in the morning and I'm only somewhat awake. So please excuse whatever grammatical errors you find.**

Percy's POV.

What was she doing here? That was the thing that went through my head after all these years of not seeing _her._

Wait, where did that come from? Oh wait, I knew where it came from. My brain. But that's not the point. I recognize that face. I didn't want to, but I did. How could I forget the girl who betrayed me? She promised to keep in touch with me when she moved, but it never happened. We slowly grew apart. Every friend I'd ever had had done that to me. They'd always abandoned me. Well except for my mom, and Grover.

She stared at me with those beautiful yet calculating grey eyes, as if she found me familiar, but couldn't figure out from where. Wow, slow down there Percy, she might not even recognize you. (Okay I'll admit it, I might have had a tiny crush on her when we were thirteen, but that's all it was! I swear)

Just as I was about to continue my question to Grover, Luke came into the room. It was getting really crowded in here. And the tension, don't even get me started on that.

"Luke?!" I said. What was he doing here? What the unholy poop was going on?

Obviously he recognized me, but Luke seemed to have better control of himself because he just said "Percy." calmly.

"Well, it would seem that everyone knows everyone here but me. Will someone please explain to me what's going on?" Annabeth said after a second of awkward silence and a stare down between me and Luke, which he was winning. But then after a second, he turned to look at Annabeth, as if he meant a lot to her, and felt it was his duty to tell her. Which obviously it wasn't. Or was it...

"Annabeth, surely you remember Percy, don't you?" Grover spoke up. How did he know her?

Slowly recognition dawned on her face. And she got this cute, shocked look. Something that I knew probably didn't happen very often.

"Oh wow" was all she said. All she probably could say, due to her mouth opening and closing. Like a fish. I couldn't help but crack a smile. Uh-oh, that somehow earned me a glare. Yikes, I could handle Luke's glares, but not Annabeth's. Those were somehow more deadly.

After she had stopped looking like a fish and glaring at me, Annabeth asked, "And how do you and Percy know eachother? She said directing the question to Luke without looking away from me. Either I am starting to get even more handsome than I already am, or Annabeth just couldn't believe that I was here. But I would rather hope it was the first of the two.

Luke hesitated, so I spoke instead. "Well, after you moved to San Francisco, I switched schools and went to Goode. Luke and I met, and we were kind of friends. And then he betrayed me, just like everyone else in my life has." I mumbled that last part, but I think she heard me.

"Thank you Luke for answering my question." Annabeth said.

"You're quite welcome" I responded with a smirk. Another glare.

"And you, how do you know Luke?" I asked Annabeth? Not like it was any of my business, but I wanted to know.

Before Annabeth could respond, that guy interfered. "She's my girlfriend." That earned a look from Annabeth, but it wasn't pointed at me. Why was she looking at him like that? We're they having couple problems? You see, that's why I don't date.

"Well then, Percy and I had better get on going, we've got other patients to tend to, and I have to get Ryan home. It was nice seeing you again Annabeth, Luke." Grover said, standing up. And it was a good thing to, because Luke and I were having another stare down and my eyes were starting to burn.

He walked out and I followed, not saying a word. But right before I left, I heard Annabeth say, "Bye Percy, we should catch up sometime."

I didn't know what to say, so I just kept walking.

 **Okay, I'll admit it, that was a really hard chapter to right. I don't know where I wanted it to go, or anything. I literally was making this up at the top of my head, meaning I didn't have anything planned out. Please let me know if you think that this chapter was pointless. But be nice, if you do choose to do so. I need some inspiration, so please let me know in reviews. Thanks.**


	8. What Happened

**Holy Cow (if my sister was reading this she'd say "sister, we've discussed this, there is no such thing as a Holy Cow") it's been quite a while since I've written anything. But you all know how bad I am at keeping promises. I promised myself that since I had a half day today that I would do all my homework for the week. Look where that got me. Oh well. Anyways, I'll get to leaving you alone now so that you can read.**

 ** _Percy's point of view_**

I couldn't believe that Annabeth was hanging around with a guy like Luke. The Annabeth that I knew was a lot more careful than that. She didn't befriend someone if she thought that they weren't worthy of her attention. Of course a lot can change in 10 years. That's right; the last time that I had seen Annabeth was when I was 13. And yes, I'm 23. Last time I checked, Annabeth thought that Luke was and I quote "a bully and that he was the worst person ever." But then again, that was like 10 years ago. And is Luke really Annabeth's girlfriend? Or was he just saying that to press my buttons? He knows that I had a huge crush on her when we were 13. Heck, he's one of the only people who figured it out by themselves.

Wait a minute.

Am I only asking myself these questions because I still have feelings for a certain blond haired, gray eyed girl? Or should I say woman?

No way. I am not going there again. Last time it ended in a disaster. Let me explain. When I finally acknowledged that I had feelings for Annabeth, I tried to get her attention by making her jealous. People usually say that it never works that way, but I had to try. I needed her to see that I didn't want to be just friends. Well anyways, I asked my friend Rachel if she would participate in my scheme. But in the process of making Annabeth jealous, Rachel fell for me. And then one day, she just kissed me. Right in front of Annabeth. We succeeded in making her jealous, but the end result wasn't what I wanted. Annabeth became angry and we had this huge argument. Right as the quarrel was getting to its worst moment something came over me, and I kissed her right then and there, in front of the whole camp who had gathered to watch one of our biggest fights ever. I can remember that many of the campers stood there in shock, others exchanged money, and I'm pretty sure that I heard a few girls squealing in delight. And then she announced that she was moving to San Francisco and that she needed to go and pack. That was the last time that I saw her.

Even if I did have feelings for her, Annabeth and I could never work. For one thing, she has Luke, "or does she really" a voice in the back of my head asked me, but I pushed that voice away. And I doubt that she likes me back. We could barely manage a friendship without fighting every hour. How would we manage a girlfriend/boyfriend relationship? Like I said, it couldn't work. But I still wanted to have lunch with her and find out who she is today and if my feelings would change if she had changed.

I lost my train of thought when Grover and his foster child came up to me. I guess that I should explain who Ryan is. Ryan is this kid that Grover and I found in his closet when he became the manager of Target. The previous manager, my stepdad Gabe, had gotten fired and Grover was promoted. After the owner of the store threatened to not give him his last paycheck, Gabe finally "moved out" of the office. I say "moved out" because he hadn't even bothered to pick up the trash that littered the floor. So Grover and I were stuck to cleaning it. One afternoon, Grover and I were cleaning the office out when we heard this whimpering. At first I ignored it because I thought I was just the squeaky wheels of the vacuum. But then Grover started to get nervous and think that the office was haunted. He thought that Gabe had murdered someone in the office and the ghost was haunting us. So, to prove to him that it was not haunted, I started looking for some sort of Gabe contraption that he had left for us to get in trouble for. I was looking underneath a chair next to a closet when I heard the whimpering again. The closet! Of course Gabe would hide something in there. But when I tried opening it, the door was locked.

For the next hour, Grover and I looked for a key. Finally we gave up and asked an employee for a hairpin. She gave us a strange look when we asked, but after explaining, she handed one over saying,

"I'm glad that scumbag is gone. Anything I can do to help you two, all you need to do is ask."

With that, she gave us the pin. "I'm Katie by the way." She said extending her hand.

I shook it and asked "Want to discover with us what is in the mysterious, locked closet?"

"Why not?" she said. "It's not like I have much else to do anyways."

She followed us to the office and after about 5 minutes of lock picking, we were finally able to open the door. What we discovered inside was totally shocking.

Turns out, the whimpering that Grover and I had heard while cleaning was a little boy. He looked to be about 3 or 4, and had light blond hair with hazel eyes. The kid almost looked half starved and before I knew it, Katie and Grover were on the floor fussing over him. I just stood there in shock getting angry.

How dare he? How dare that son of a female dog lock a child in a closet?! Was this Gabe's child? Had he had an affair and this kid was the result of that affair? I was going to kill that man. He didn't even deserve a punishment like death. He needed something worse. I think he'd look good in an orange suit and chains attached to his wrists and ankles…

At first, we kept the boy, whom we discovered was called Ryan, in the office but then we realized that we could not keep him there. So the three of us went to the owner of the store, and asked what we should do. He told us that child services would be closed for the evening but that one of us should probably take Ryan home and feed him and call the service the next morning. We decided that Katie should be the one to take him because she was good with him and probably had a better place for him to stay.

The next morning, Katie didn't come to work. She called in saying that she wanted to spend the day with Ryan before calling child services and that she would call the next day. The next day came, and the call was never made. We kept putting off the call, until Katie persuaded us that he would be better off with us than in a foster home. So, the three of us had been rotating "custody" of Ryan for the past few weeks.

Anyways, when Grover approached me with Ryan, I noticed him giving me a strange face. As if he was waiting for my reaction about seeing Annabeth.

"Dude, she was so happy to see you." Grover told me

"Yeah right. Happiness is totally being confused. Did you see the look she gave me?" I said.

"Did you? Man that was her "what-the-crap-are-you-doing-here-but-its-good-to-see-you face." He said.

"I didn't know that even was a face anyone could have."

"Totally, she gave me that face to me once when I surprised her in San Francisco. Whoops. You weren't supposed to know that."

"YOU MEAN YOU WENT TO GO SEE HER IN SAN FRANCISCO AND DIDN'T TELL ME?!" I practically shouted.

"SSSSHHH" said Ryan with a finger to his lips. I love the kid but now wasn't the time to be shushed. Of course it isn't the time or place to be loud either.

I lowered my voice and said "whatever" I crossed my arms like a little kid throwing a tantrum and said "I still can't believe that you didn't tell me."

"Well what else was I supposed to do? If I had told you, you would have gotten all depressed and mad and stuff."

"Yeah but then I would have gotten over it." I said.

"And then what Percy? You would have gone to San Francisco to see her. When I was over there, Annabeth asked me to not say anything to you. She wasn't ready to talk to you." Grover said slowly as if not sure how I would react to that last part.

"Yeah but…" I started.

"There is no buts. From the looks of it, she has forgiven you but if I were you I'd tread this slowly. Annabeth is not the person she was when we were 12." He took Ryan by the arm and walked ahead of me. Leaving me to my thoughts.

 **So how was that? _Let me know in reveiws._ I was making it up as I went but I had an idea of what I wanted to put. I think in the next chapter there will be a little bit of connecting between Ryan and Percy. And maybe we will see what's up with Annabeth and Luke.**


	9. Breaking Up and Bad Dreams

**That was awesome you guys. Normally I get about 1-3 reviews per chapter, but yesterday, the day before, and this morning I got 12! Yes I counted. I'm weird like that. But seriously, that was awesome. So I decided that I would reward you.**

 _Luke's point of view_

"That was awkward" said Annabeth after Percy, Grover and whoever that kid was left.

"Sure was" I agreed.

"Luke, we need to talk." Annabeth said after about 5 minutes of silence.

Oh gosh. Here it comes, she knows about me eating the leftover cookies.

"About that night, when I was… you know…"

Nope that's worse.

"Look Annabeth, I'm sorry, okay. I didn't realize that I was spending more time at work than with you but I promise that it won't ever happen again. That's not a mistake I plan on making again."

"You're right you won't. I meant it when I said we were over. I just need some space for a little while. Okay?"

WHAT? She couldn't do that to me. We'd been together for over two and a half years. After all that we'd been through she wanted to break up with me now?!

"Annabeth are you sure you want to do that? I don't know what I'll do without you."

This wasn't because she'd seen Percy right? I mean I knew that they'd been crushing each other since they were 12, but I never thought those feelings would come up now. After 10 years? Nah, not my Annabeth. She was heartbroken when she left New York. Last I checked, she still hated him for not coming after her when she left.

"I've been thinking about it and, well… I don't know. I just think it's time we take a break for a while. I think it would be best for the both of us with your new job and me being like this." She gestured to her broken state.

I looked into her eyes and saw that she truly meant what she was saying but it was killing her as much as it was me. The best thing that I could do for her was to not argue. But still, I persisted.

"But Annabeth, this is when we need each other the most. Its times like these that we have to stick to our relationship."

"I know Luke, but I just… I don't know if I want a relationship right now. It's not you, it's me."

I hadn't realized just how much the accident had affected her not just physically but emotionally too. She was probably worried about how I would act around her when she got out of the hospital. She'd be in a wheel chair until her ribs healed, and then walking around with crutches. I don't have anything against people who are injured or disabled in one way or another, but to Annabeth, it meant that she would be weak until she could be 100% back on her feet again. It's a pride thing. I guess she didn't want me to see her like that.

Finally I relented. I could see that I would not change Annabeth's mind so I just nodded. After that, things got awkward, so I kissed her cheek, probably for the last time, and left.

 _Percy's point of view_

We drove back in silence to my apartment where Ryan would be spending the weekend with me since neither Grover nor Katie could take care of him. After I had dropped Grover at his apartment, I took Ryan to the park. He didn't seem that into it, so after about 20 minutes later we left. You see, out of all three of us, Ryan seems to like me the least. I guess it's just because I don't really know how to handle him. I mean I try, I really do, and I've just never been good with kids. So finally I decided that it was time for the day to end and go home.

When Ryan and I got to my apartment, I made dinner and even though I'm not too great of a cook, I made spaghetti and meatballs. Usually I forget to put the water in the pot and end up with a burnt pot and burnt uncooked pasta **(I've actually done that once with oatmeal)** , but today, the pasta turned out pretty good and I didn't have to through it away, or put it in the back of my fridge for "leftovers". I guess Ryan thought it was pretty good too, because he wasn't just moving it around his plate and not eating like he usually does when he's at my place. This time, he ate everything and even asked for more.

By the time dinner ended, it was 7 and I could see that Ryan was exhausted. So I told him good night and he went into my room. Since I don't have an extra bedroom or anything, Ryan would sleep in my room, and I would be on the couch.

I finally fell asleep on the couch at about midnight. That couch was really lumpy and uncomfortable, plus it didn't help that I couldn't stop thinking about Annabeth and all that we had been through in our younger days. I had just dozed off, when I heard sniffles. Uh oh.

"Mr. Percy?" the only person who calls me that is Ryan. Why does he only call me mister?

I opened my eyes and found that Ryan was at the doorway to the living room crying, holding my old blanket from when I was little. For some reason he is really attached to that blanket and soon it became his.

"I had a bad dream…" Ryan said sniffling.

I didn't say anything but held out my arms, and told him to "come here." He practically ran to me.

And then his sniffling became full out crying. Great, now my sleeve's all wet. Yuck.

"What happened?" I asked once he had calmed down enough to speak. I knew from experience that it usually helped to talk about your dreams. That way, you could understand that it was just a dream.

"I was chased by a man in black. He… he had a mean face and was chasing me with a stick. I twy to get away, but…" he started crying again. Luckily for my shirt, it wasn't as bad as before so he was able to finish his sentence. "He… he grabbed me. And then I wake up."

Oh gods. Was this kid abused? Is that why he didn't like me? Because I reminded him of the someone who had abused him? Is that why he called me mister? Because his abuser had made him do so?

How could someone do this to him? Even though he didn't like me much, Ryan was one of the sweetest kids I had ever met in my entire life. And I've met a lot of children. Life is so unfair. What did he ever do to Life?

I didn't realize that I had started crying until Ryan said something about it.

"What's wong?" he said in his sweet innocent voice.

Whoops I thought. It wasn't easy but I managed a "huh, oh nothing." I knew that if I attempted to speak again that I would completely break down.

Despite this, I spoke again. "Can I tell you something?" I asked.

He nodded with a yawn and I knew that he'd fall asleep soon.

"It will be okay. We will find your parents." I said. Or at least someone who loves and cares for you, I added to myself. And whoever did this to you. "I promise." And then he was asleep. Just like that.

 **EEEEKKKK. I actually liked that chapter. What did you all think? It kind of got a bit emotional, but I think that might be the reason that I liked it. Tell me what you thought in reviews please. And I'll try to add the next chapter sometime this weekend.**


	10. At the cafe

**You guys, I'm really disappointed in you. Out of all the people who read it, not, only one person reviewed. But I'd like to give a personal shout out to Mystery gurl 21. YOU ROCK! Anyways here's that chapter that I said I would add this weekend.**

 **Oh and by the way, Luke's point of view is not going to be a reoccurring thing in this story, I just felt that it would be good for the story and it might just . I might add it a few more times throughout but that's it.**

 _Annabeth's point of view_

It's two weeks after my break up with Luke and I have never felt more free. Yet I haven't ever felt more restricted in my life. This dang wheel chair is so frustrating. When I want something that I can't reach, Thalia has to get it for me, and then when I go out, people give me stares of pity. I absolutely hate it. Luckily for me, I get out of this wheelchair somewhere in the next two weeks. My ribs have almost healed, so soon I will be able to walk around on crutches and go back to work. That will be a relief. I have been so bored at home doing practically nothing.

Yesterday, I decided that I had had enough of just sitting around doing nothing but thinking about Percy, and Ryan and at times, Luke. Sometimes I wish he was here but in a way, I'm glad that we broke up. I'm once again free to do whatever I please. Now I don't have to worry about what he would say or think if I did this or that. It was one of the restrictions of having a boyfriend and I have decided that I will take a break from dating for a while. Maybe I should just take a break from dating forever and die an old cat lady.

Anyways, after 4 days of sitting around in my wheelchair doing very little, I decided that I would go out shopping. Thalia was running low on food anyways and I need to get out of the house. Or well technically it's an apartment but who cares?

I exited the building of my apartment and was barely 40 feet away when I ran over someone's foot. Whoopsies.

"I am so sorry!" I said at the same time that he said or more like growled "Will you watch where you're going?!"

How rude! "I'm in a wheelchair you moron, and I'm still learning to navigate this thing! You should learn to watch where you put your foot that way I don't run over it." I practically shouted to the guy. And then I looked up and gasped. When I looked up, his face was filled with shock, and confusion then realization, and then, wait for it; pity. Ugh, i hate it when peopel look at me like that. I don't need pity and nor do I have any use for it.

Once again, Percy looked like a fish, opening and closing his mouth, I began to think that a bug was going to fly in. that happened once, thinking about it now, when we were at camp and it was the second to last day. The camp was throwing a formal dance to all of the people who would be too old to come back next year, and Percy and I had decided to go with each other as friends since we wouldn't be returning the following year. I can remember how I came out of my cabin all dressed up in a knee length, sleeveless grey dress with flowers along the top and going down to where the skirt met the top of the dress, and my hair down, just the way Percy liked it. **(I'm actually describing the dress that I got from France and wore to homecoming)** I can remember how he looked stunned. In fact he looked similar to how he does now. His fish face that is. Anyways, when I came out of my cabin he was just gaping, and then a fly flew into his mouth. Immediately his hands went into his mouth, trying to get that fly out. It was hilarious and we were late to the dance because 20 minutes later I still hadn't stopped laughing and at one point I started crying so then I had to go back in and have my cabin mates redo my makeup. Thankfully though, they were quick and then we were on our way.

The memory made me smile and when I came to, I realized Percy and I were in the middle of the sidewalk getting yelled at by passerbies. What was their problem?

"Percy, you might want to quit staring and…" but before I could finish, a cyclist almost crashed into him. Luckily, Percy heard the bikers' yells about getting out of the way and moved just in time. He always did have good hearing.

"Annabeth, we might want to get out of the sidewalk" Percy said.

"That's just what I was about to say before you almost got run over." I replied with a smile.

There was a café literally 20 feet away and so without telling me what was going on, Percy pushed me over and he decided that we would have lunch there.

"I was just about to meet Grover and Ryan for lunch here. Why don't you join us?" Percy offered.

It was a good thing that he offered because I just so happened to be famished.

When Grover got there, I noticed he had a familiar little boy with him. Was that Ryan? It was! I was so excited that I almost got up and ran to give him a hug. Almost. Except when I tried, my ribs felt like they were on fire. I decided against getting up and settled for just wheeling over to say hi.

When I got there, both Grover and Ryan's face lit up. Ryan practically hopped on my chair and Grover's smile reached his ears. Who knew I could make people so happy.

"Hi there you two!" I said.

"Annabeth what're you doing here?" Grover asked.

"Well to make a long story short, I ran over Percy's foot and then he almost got run over by a cyclist and then he took me over he and invited me over for lunch." Wow that was such a run on sentence, I thought.

"Well I'm glad you can join us." Grover said. "I have something that I want to talk to you about."

Oh goodness. Hopefully it wasn't something bad.

"Then why don't you come and sit with us and we can talk while we order." I offered. He nodded and with that I wheeled around and went to our table.

Once everyone was seated, Grover, with interruptions from Percy, explained how they had come across Ryan. When they told me that it was Percy's step dad who was responsible for locking him in a closet, I almost exploded. Why would he do such a thing instead of calling child services?

Killing Percy's step dad would have to wait because just then the waitress came over and to take our order, except she was more flirting with Percy than anything. For some reason, that made me jealous. Couldn't she see that Percy wasn't interested? He was just staring at his menu and when the waitress asked him what his order was, he didn't even look up.

Wait a minute. Why was I jealous? It isn't like Percy and I are dating or anything. I didn't even have feelings for him anymore. Did I? What happened to no more dating? No. Percy and I are just old friends catching up at a café. But still why was I jealous? Percy may have good looks with his sea green eyes and his tan, muscled body and raven black, always messy hair. But that didn't mean that he hadn't changed over the past 10 years. I'll have to judge his character later and see what I think then because now it's food time.

 _Percy's point of view_

After that flirting waitress left and we got our food, Grover asked Annabeth something that made her wall go up.

"So how has Luke been, Annabeth?" he asked.

She hesitated before answering "I wouldn't know, he and I broke up after you guys left at the hospital that day."

For some reason that made me smile. Before anyone could notice however, I quickly stuffed some food in my mouth.

"I'm sorry to hear that." Grover said politely.

Annabeth just shrugged and changed the topic.

"So what was it that you wanted to talk to me about?" she asked

"Well I was wondering if you would like to help us find Ryan's mom."

At the word "Mom" Ryan poked Annabeth saying "You my Mommy".

Annabeth just smiled and hugged him.

Wait a minute. Annabeth wasn't Ryan's mom was she? I guess she noticed my weird face because she just laughed saying "No Percy, Ryan is not my son."

I sighed with relief, causing Annabeth to smile. Oh how I love that smile.

I almost kicked myself with that thought because I had promised myself about two years ago that I would not fall in love again. Not after what Rachel did to me. You see, after Annabeth went to California, Rachel and I "broke up". Even though we were never officially together, I wanted to make sure that I didn't keep leading her on. So I broke up with her and 3 years later we bumped into each other at Goode High. Soon after that, I fell for her and it turns out that she had never really gotten over me so we started to go out. We were still together after 5 years and just as I was about to find the nerve to propose, I found her in bed with another man. She was drunk, but still I could not forgive her for what she has done. So I ended it.

Ever since, my heart has been too afraid to trust or love, so I have stayed single. Sure a lot of women have tried to hit on me, but I refuse each time. But now, with Annabeth back in my life, the fact that I am realizing that I am falling for her all over again means that I have finally gotten over Rachel. Maybe if the time is right, then we can get together and see what happens after that but for now, we can just be friends.

"Alright you guys, it's been great catching up, but I have some grocery shopping to do, and if I'm not back by the time Thalia gets back from work, she's going to go crazy if I'm not there." Annabeth announced.

When I glanced at my clock I was shocked to see that it was already 2:00. We had been at the café for over an hour and a half. My, time flies.

We exited the café and I noticed that Annabeth seemed to struggle getting around, so I volunteered to go shopping with her.

"Hey Annabeth! Wait up." I yelled. "I have some shopping I need to do myself, so why don't I come with you." I actually didn't need to, but she seemed pretty relieved to have someone go with her.

"Are you sure you don't mind Percy?" she asked.

Of course I don't mind, I thought. It's time to spend with my Wise Girl. Wow. I haven't used that nickname in forever.

But I didn't say any of those things and just said "Of course I don't mind. Besides, who's going to come to your rescue you when you can't reach something? Or when people are pushing you to get out of their way?" I grinned and pointed to myself. "Me of course."

Before she could say anything, I grabbed the handlebars of the chair and off we went.

 **Okay, that was hard to write. I had no idea what I wanted to do with that chapter and how I wanted to end it and all sorts of things. So I decided that I would just end it like that. Plus I felt like if I continued it, the chapter would just drag on and on and get boring. So that's it for now ya'll. TELL ME WHAT YOU THOUGHT IN REVIEWS PLEASE. This time with more than just one please.**


	11. Asking

**Honestly! 1 review?! Oh well. 1 is better than nothing, so I'd like to send a shout out to abccourage! I'm glad you like it, and this chapter is dedicated to you.**

 _Annabeth's point of view_

 _Returning from their shopping_

"WHAT IN THE…" Thalia shouted once I entered the apartment. And then she noticed Percy and paused, mid sentenced. She doesn't do that often so when she does I have to treasure the moment. I started searching for my phone when I hear a camera click. Percy had beaten me to it. A millisecond later, Thalia started to yell.

"PERCEUS JACKSON!" she practically screamed jumping him so that she could grab his phone. "YOU HAD BETTER DELETE THAT PHOTO RIGHT NOW!"

But he just laughed and the struggle continued. Meanwhile, I had found my phone and got it out so that I could take a video of the two. You never know when that might come in handy but I would have it just in case.

"Okay! That's enough you two!" I yelled over their arguing. "Percy, I think it's time you head home and Thalia, you need to start making dinner." Believe it or not, Thalia was the better cook out of the both of us and when we didn't order take out, she liked to cook.

The two just looked at me like I was crazy and continued with their bickering. That was it, since I couldn't march over there and physically stop their fighting; I grabbed a pillow, and hit them both with all my might. In turn, they both grabbed their own pillows, beginning a full on pillow fight.

20 minutes later, we were all out of breath and my ribs were starting to kill me. Who knew a pillow fight could be such exercise?

Looking down at his phone, Percy gasped. "Holy cow people. It's already 6. I have to go home. Unlike you two, I actually have work tomorrow." He said teasingly. Thalia was about to protest, but I glared at her and she didn't say anything. Had she spoken, we would have gotten into another fully fledged argument and the neighbors would have been disturbed. While Percy started grabbing his things, I looked around to see if he had forgotten anything and Thalia started to pick up the pillows and clean up.

"Well I guess I should get going." Percy said after everything had been cleaned up.

"I'll walk you out." I said. Then I looked down and laughed. "Whoops can't do that."

Once Percy and I exited the door, things got kind of awkward. I tried to remember why I offered to walk him out, but I couldn't focus because Percy was staring at me intently.

"What?" I asked with a smirk.

"Oh I don't know. I guess it's just good to have my Wise Girl back." I blushed at that last comment. Gods. How long has it been since he's called me that? Practically 10 years now.

"It was good seeing you Percy. I'm glad we were able to catch up." I said.

"Why don't we do it again? This Friday, say 7:00?" Percy said kind of nervously. Why was he nervous? Wait a minute. Was he asking me out?

"Are you asking me out on date?" I asked smiling.

"I don't know, do you want it to be?" he responded with the same smile I had given him.

I turned serious and said "I'm not sure I'm quite ready for dates just yet."

His smile faded. He looks so cute when he's sad. So as to not to continue to break his spirit, I said "But I wouldn't mind going just as friends." At that, his smile returned.

"Alright then, I'll pick you up at 7 then on Friday." He said

"See you then!" I said as he turned to leave.

 _Percy's point of view_

Holy cow. Did I just ask Annabeth out on a friend date? I did! I did a little skip. Now why couldn't I have done that years ago when we were 13? Probably cause I was afraid of the beating I would receive after I asked her. The 13 year old Annabeth I knew wouldn't have been able to control herself and then would smack me. Then she might have said yes. But that's not the point. Annabeth said yes! I mean sure we were going as friends, but I feel the same way as when she asked me if we could go to the camp dance together as friends. I feel very… giddy. I can't wait until Friday.

 **Soooo… how was that? Let me know! I'm not sure when the next time I'll be able to update is. I'm going to be focusing on homework for the rest of the week. Maybe I'll have the chance to update on Friday. Who knows.**


	12. Reactions

**OMIGOSH! HOLY COW! EEEEKKKK! You guys your reaction to this chapter was not what I expected at all. I got so many emails from people who told me how much that they loved each chapter! The reviews were absolutely amazing! I could barely wait till Friday to write this! I'd like to send a dozen shout outs to each person who has reviewed, (whether it be on this chapter or another) favorite or followed the story, or me! Can you tell how happy I am by all the exclamation points? Once again EEEEKKKK! *girly squeal with a happy dance***

 **I'd like to especially thank KoalaLover-ABC-123 who has reviewed on every chapter. I know I can always count on you to review, so thanks for that!**

 **Piper 016; you are totally awesome. You said that you love this story as much as the actual books and I'd just like to say that I am no Rick Riordan and I could never write as good as him, but that comment made my day.**

 **Here we go!**

 _Annabeth's point of view_

I reentered the house and just sat by the door for a minute smiling. And then Thalia rushed over with a huge smirk on her face.

"So what was that all about?" she said

"What do you mean?" I asked even though I knew exactly what she meant.

"Oh don't you play dumb with me Annabeth. I saw the whole thing. Percy said something and then you guys both blushed like crazy." Thalia said waving her finger at me.

"You were spying on us?!" I said feigning shock even though I knew she had done so. Thalia wasn't the type to just sit around doing nothing while her two best friends were outside talking.

"You know I was. Now quit avoiding the question and answer it!" she said, her eyes sparkling.

"Okay fine." I sighed then said "He asked me out."

"And…" Thalia said barely managing to contain her excitement.

"And I told him that I couldn't do a date, but I could do a hang out as friends."

Her smile faded, but Thalia seemed to understand what I meant. I was still not quite over Luke. We had been together for what seemed forever and I didn't exactly want to break up with him. I just couldn't manage a relationship when I got into the accident. I doubt I can do it even now after I've gotten used to my state of being. I guess I was afraid of how he would treat me after I had gotten out of the hospital, I was afraid of being treated like I was useless and unworthy. After everything, I guess I felt that it was finally time for a break. And whether or not that break is permanent I have yet to figure out.

While I had been thinking, Thalia had pulled out her phone and a second later I felt my phone vibrate. Thalia had sent a message to the group chat with the girls. It said "oh my gods, Percy and Annabeth are going out."

My phone continued pinging a second later.

Piper: What?!

Hazel: When?

Juniper: Wait, so she and Luke are officially broken up now right?

Thalia: U heard me. He just asked her, and yes, they are officially done.

Me: You guys know I'm right here don't you?

Juniper: oh, hey Annabeth

Piper: Everyone, meeting at Thalia's place!

Hazel: k, b there in 10.

Juniper: I'll bring the pizza!

Me: Before anyone comes over, I need to straighten things out. Percy and I are not going out on a date, but as friends.

Piper: L

Hazel: Good, take it slow.

Piper: But I want Percabeth!

Me: Wait a minute; you already have a ship name?!

Hazel: well duh, we've been shipping you two since we met Percy.

Juniper: Should I still bring the pizza?

Thalia: yes, we need to get ready for Annabeth's big "hang out" and start planning everything

Me: Thalia it isn't even a date. I thought we established that! And when did you guys meet Percy?!

Piper: When you were in San Francisco for your brothers' birthday, Thalia had a get together and she invited her cousins along with her brother and a few other people.

Hazel: Piper! You weren't supposed to say anything

Piper: Whoops.

Juniper: You guys, what type of pizza do you want?

Me: Extra olives!

Piper: cheese please!

Hazel: Pineapple!

Thalia: Idc

Juniper: so should I just get 2 large pizzas? One half cheese and half pineapple, the other half olive and half whatever?

Me: Exactly

Juniper: K. B there in 20 min.

Piper: I just need to pack a bag and I'll be there in 15

Hazel: Same. Ttyl.

With that, everyone finished texting.

 **oOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo**

Piper arrived first. As soon as she entered, she went straight to my room and started to go through my clothing, picking out outfits for Friday.

Before Luke and I started dating, Thalia and I shared the house. So when we broke up, I claimed back my room with the walk in closet. When I came back, everything was just as I had left it.

"Annabeth!" she whined. "None of these are going to be good enough for your date!"

"Piper!" I said with an equal amount of whining in my voice. "I was just planning on going in jeans. Besides, what's the point, when I'll be in this chair the whole time, I wouldn't be able to show anything off even if I wanted to. And," I continued, "We are just going as friends. Meaning I don't have to get dressed up." She frowned but continued to go through my clothes.

"Ugh! I give up." Piper said exasperated. Then she said pointing at me "Tomorrow, you and I are going shopping." I groaned, but didn't argue because I knew that there was no point.

"I'm here!" Juniper said in a singsong voice entering the door.

"Thank the gods." I could hear Thalia say in the kitchen. "I'm starving."

 **oOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo**

We were just about to start picking a movie when I realized something. I still hadn't told the girls about meeting Ryan and how I would be helping to find his mom. I debated whether I should tell them at first, but then I realized that they could help me out on with certain things that I would not be able to do alone, so I decided to tell them.

"You guys, I have something to tell you." I announced as the girls debated on whether or not to watch a chick flick, or a comedy.

Suddenly all the ruckus that they were making died down.

Piper was the first to speak saying teasingly "Oh Annabeth, your lesbian. That's why you wanted to only…"

But before she could go any further, I grabbed the nearest object, which so happened to be a pillow and threw it at her. That shut her up.

"If you had let me finish, you would have realized that was not what I was going to say." I said almost angrily even though I knew that she was teasing. "In fact, that was not even close to what I was going to say. And I am not a lesbian." I continued.

"So what then were you going to say?" Hazel asked gently seeing that I was sort of stressed and somewhat embarrassed.

"I was going to tell you what happened before the accident and if you could help me with something." I said slowly.

I watched as each girl got into a position where they would be comfortable to listen. And then I began. I told them about how I had gone to Target to get some clothes and then almost witnessed Ryan being kidnapped, and how I had found out that it was Percy's ex-step dad who had locked him into a closet, leaving Percy and Grover to find him and how they had "adopted" him until they could find his mom. And finally I told them how I had been asked to help find Ryan's mom.

"The reason I'm telling you guys this is because I want to find Ryan's mom, and you can help me do this. So will you help?" I asked.

Piper looked at me with such a determined look and said "Forget shopping, tomorrow, you and I are going to go find this Gabe, and smack him silly. Then we can go find Ryan's mom."

"Count me in." Juniper said.

"I can have some friends in New Orleans that can help us find out who his mom is. I'll call them first thing in the morning." Hazel said. I grinned because this is exactly why I told them.

Then I looked at Thalia. She had been unusually quiet during this whole ordeal and it had me worried. When I glanced over, she had this far away look and it was strange because I had never seen her like this.

"Thalia?" I said softly.

When she heard my voice, she awoke from her trance. "Huh, oh yeah. I will definitely help out. I'm sure my dad knows someone who can help us out. I'll call him up tomorrow morning."

I hesitated, knowing that she probably wouldn't answer, but I asked anyways. "What were you thinking about?"

I actually got an answer. "I was just thinking about how Jason went missing when he was two." We all knew the story about how Jason, Thalia's little brother wandered off when Thalia, Jason and their mom were in Disney World. He'd been missing for almost two days when they found him curled up by their car. "I'm just wondering if someone is looking for Ryan like I was for Jason." This was one of the rare times that Thalia became emotional and I didn't know how to react. So I just said "I'm sure he does."

She wouldn't let it go though and said "But what if he doesn't Annabeth? What if no one out there loves him or wants him? What then?"

"I honestly don't know. I guess we will just have to take it day by day." I said.

Thalia wiped a tear from her eye and said "Okay. I can do that."

"You didn't see anything." Thalia said glaring at each of us once she had calmed down.

"But of course not." Piper said. We all started laughing and settled down to watch the movie that we had finally agreed on.

 **So I feel like in this chapter Thalia is a little bit out of character, but that's just the way it's going to have to be. I also don't know much about juniper's character so I just made kind of made something up and that's why she doesn't have much important dialogue in this chapter. Hopefully I will be able to expand and evolve her character as time goes on. Let me know what you think in reviews please! I have a three day weekend so I might be able to write the next chapter sometime then.**

 **P.s. I apologize to those of you who don't like long chapters, I just felt like (a) the previous chapter was too short and (b) there were a lot of things that I wanted to include in this chapter so I made it long. Plus I didn't exactly know how to end it.**


	13. Getting Ready

**CookieUnicorn (guest) - I want to thank you so much for that review. It honestly made my day.**

 **Myster gurl 21 – You will see what happens later on… "Evil laugh"**

 **KoalaLover-ABC-!23 – I'm glad that you like it so much. Keep reviewing and we might just see about what will happen with Ryan and his mom later on…**

 **I would like to thank the three of you personally for reviewing. You guys are amazing! And out of the 727 people who have read this story since I've updated, only you three had the decency to review so I thank you for that. But seriously, when other people don't review on my work, it makes me think that it wasn't good enough to be reviewed upon.**

 **So this chapter is dedicated to my three faithful reviewers.**

 **On a completely unrelated note, have you ever noticed that an unpersonalized (I don't know if that is even a word but I don't really care right now) profile picture is represented as a guy? Well actually it could be a girl with short hair, and I don't know if it is, but I also don't know of too many guys who read or write fanfiction so why represent it as a guy. Just saying. I'm not hating against all of you guy fanfiction readers I'm just questioning life right now.**

 **So instead of bothering you with all my problems right now, I'm going to let you read. Or continue reading. But instead of reading what I'm saying right now, I'll let you read what the PJO characters have to say.**

 **Last note. I promise. Of course I thought that the previous note was the last one. Or at least until the end of the chapter. Excuse my grammatical errors please. I had a crappy weekend and writing this calmed me down. Oh and this chapter will switch point of views between Annabeth and Percy quite a few times cause I didn't know how else to do it, so pay attention!**

 _Annabeth's point of view_

 _An hour before the "date"_

"Annabeth!" Piper shouted across the room. It's an hour before the date and I still hadn't decided what I wanted to wear for my "date" with Percy. So I had called Piper over in a panic.

"Thank the gods you're here." I said greeting my friend.

She grinned and said "So what does the great Annabeth need that her dear friend Piper can help her with? You sounded pretty desperate on the phone."

I rolled my eyes before shyly admitting "I have no idea what to wear."

Piper looked at me with shock "Annabeth chase! Are you asking for my help on fashion advice?" she said with sarcasm dripping from her voice.

"Yes?" I said a little bit embarrassed. Normally I would have just put on a pair of jeans and a nice shirt, but that was when I was with Luke. And that was also if he told me that I didn't need to get all dressed up. But this was Percy and I had absolutely no idea what we would be doing. Although, I doubt that it's anything fancy, considering this wasn't supposed to be a date.

Piper simply nodded and started asking me questions. I suppose they were to help her figure out what I should wear.

"First off. Do you have any idea what you will be doing?" she asked while dragging me to my room.

"Umm… no?" I said sheepishly.

"Annabeth!" Piper scolded. "That's the first thing you have to find out when you go out. Whether it be on a date or not."

"What? It wasn't on my mind!" I said defending myself.

"And it hasn't once come up since he's asked you?" she said disapprovingly.

She had me there. "I doubt it will be anything fancy."

"Yeah but he could be taking you bowling, or he could be taking you to the movies. In each scenario, you'd be wearing something different." She said digging through my closet.

"What about this?" she said pulling out the outfit I bought at Target that fateful day.

I hadn't thought about that outfit since I had bought it but it was the perfect thing to wear. The sweater and jeans still had the tags on them and I hadn't even realized that the items had been salvaged from the wreckage.

"Piper, you're a genius." I said rolling over to her in my wheel chair.

"Don't I know it to." She said. Before I could respond she asked me another question. "Do you plan on wearing any makeup? And what are you going to do with that hair" she asked.

My mess of curls was in a ponytail at the moment, but I still had yet to take a shower.

"I was thinking no makeup, it would be too much, and I think I was going to put my hair down. First though, I need a shower." I told her.

She nodded as I headed to the shower.

 _Percy's point of view_

"Crapperdoodles" I muttered under my breath as I ran in the pouring rain to my car. It's an hour later than I normally would get out of work and I was going to be late. I still needed to beat the 6:00 traffic home.

Might as well text Annabeth that I'd be late. It was a good thing that we had exchanged numbers when we had gone shopping together. Otherwise I'd have to tell Thalia to tell her and for some reason that wasn't exactly what I wanted to do. So I texted Annabeth when I stopped at a red light.

Me: Hey, I might be late picking you up.

Annabeth: That's fine just don't be too late

Me: k

Annabeth: So what're we going to do tonight?

Me: I was actually going to have us take a walk around Central Park and just wander around New York, but I guess with this weather, we will have to take a rain check

Annabeth: seriously Percy with the puns? So then what?

Me: we could…? I'm out of ideas

Annabeth: Seriously, you didn't have a backup plan in case this happened?

Me: Well there was the idea of a picnic… but I guess that wouldn't work either

Annabeth: Gosh Percy, way to be more prepared. Should we just go see a movie?

Me: Idk. What do you think?

Annabeth: I think we should decide when you get here

Me: Good plan

I didn't have time to look at her response because just then the red light turned green.

oOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

When I got home, I was soaked. I quickly changed into some clean, dry clothes, grabbed my keys and an umbrella and left the apartment.

Once I got outside however the pouring rain had slowed to a drizzle and so I went back inside to grab a jacket, in case we did decide to go for a stroll and ended up getting caught in the rain.

I really am going to be late and I know how much Annabeth like to be punctual. Whoops.

 _Annabeth's point of view_

"Ding dong" I heard the doorbell chirp. Then I heard a shout "Annabeth! Percy's here!" I heard both Piper and Thalia yell. "Okay! I'll be there in a minute." I said grabbing my coat and rolling out of my room.

When I entered the room, I found Percy waiting for me while being warned by Thalia, piper, hazel and juniper. When did they get here?

I sat there for a minute, listening to my friends warn Percy that if he even dared to hurt me, then there would be no place for him to run or hide, they would find him and then they would kill him. As they did this, I took in Percy's appearance. He had on a blue t-shirt with dark jeans, and for some reason his hair was wet, as if he had just ran in the rain.

"You guys, that's enough, no need to embarrass him anymore." I said rolling over to them.

Percy's jaw dropped when he saw me. I hadn't dressed to impress but I guess the outfit I was wearing looked pretty good even if I was in a wheel chair. But then he didn't look too bad himself. The shirt was tight enough to show off his 6 pack but not too tight, I'll admit, he looked good.

But before I could say anything about Percy's jaw dropping, Thalia turned to me and said; "And you missy! If you think that just because you are one of my best friends that you can escape with hurting my cousin well then you had better think again." Out of the corner of my eye I could see Percy smirk. Oh I'd get him for that later, but I just replied saying "Thalia, you have nothing to worry about."

"I better not." She mumbled, pushing me and Percy towards the door. "Now, you two get out of here and have fun. Text us if you need anything." With that, the door was shut, and Percy and I were out of the house for our "date".

"Well that was awkward." Percy said rubbing his neck.

"Tell me about it." I said pushing myself to the street.

"It's good that you have friends like that though." He said helping push me.

"Yeah, I guess." I said. Changing the subject, I asked him "so since the rain has let up, should we still go for that walk around central park? It's only a short walk from here."

Percy grinned and headed to his car. "Just let me grab my umbrella in case we need it."

A minute later, we were on our way.

 **This chapter sucked. I know that you guys were hoping for the date, but I couldn't figure out what I wanted the characters to do and say and a bunch of other stuff. I have been trying to work on this chapter all week, however nothing seems to work with what I want. So I am going to leave it at this for now, until I can figure things out. Hopefully the date chapter will be up tomorrow night. This week has been especially crazy. I'm trying to get my grade in Honors Chem up from a C to a B, so that I can go into Honors bio and get the good teacher next year and not the bad one. That way, all my good grades and rigorous classes will look good on college applications and I can get into the college that I want. I have three tests tomorrow so I need to go study. Bye! Review please! Bye again!**


	14. Going Out an Having Fun

**AGirlLostInTime: thank you so much for that review; it was just what I look for when I look at reviews or write them myself**

 **KoalaLover-ABC-123: that's a great suggestions however I have something different in mind.**

 **MichealLukeSkyWalker: thanks for the compliment! And I will do my best to make the chapters longer. Would around 2,000 words be enough?**

 **Alicewonder (guest) - I haven't been able to come up with much for Ryan's character, hopefully I can come up with something soon, because a lot of people have been asking for more of him. And don't worry about percabeth. I like to let my characters grow and evolve and then out them together. That is after all what happened in the actual books. It took them 5 books to finally get together! But I don't plan on making you guys wait for that long, they should be together soon.**

 **So instead of boring you guys with how much I love reviews and stuff like that, I am going to make the author's note shorter for this chapter and let you guys read.**

* * *

 _Percy's point of view_

 _At Thalia's house_

I've always known that Annabeth was pretty, but when she came out from her hiding spot in the hallway, I couldn't help but stare. Her friends, specifically Thalia, had been pestering me about how much they would hurt me if I hurt her, and frankly I was kind of intimidated. Yet when Annabeth came out of that hallway, my jaw dropped. Sure, I felt like an idiot, but guys are guys and we can't help ourselves when it comes to beautiful, smart women like Annabeth. It's a wonder she was able to stay with Luke so long.

Suddenly, Thalia's attention wasn't on me anymore, which I'm not sure if that is necessarily a good thing or not. I heard her tell Annabeth that if she thought that she could get away with hurting me just because she's her best friend, then she had better think again. It was kind of funny to Thalia be so protective of me, but then again, she would sacrifice her life to save those whom she loves.

Once we were out of the house, and had decided that we would go to Central Park, an awkward silence fell between Annabeth and I. Of course, I'm not sure if Annabeth noticed it to, or what, but I found it awkward. We were silent which was something that I wasn't used to. 10 years ago, this silence would have been comfortable, but now it was like we were strangers and that friendship that we once had is gone. Except thinking about it, that's basically what we are, strangers.

Soon I began to doubt myself and taking Annabeth out for a walk. Maybe this wouldn't work and Annabeth and I would never regain what we once had, maybe she wouldn't want to be my friend once Luke tried to claim her back. Knowing him, he would try, and he'd try soon too. Oh gods, I was a fool to try. I am nothing compared to Luke when it come to Annabeth. If she was his girlfriend for a while then she must have seen something in him that I don't have.

Just when I was really considering running and leaving Annabeth, she spoke up and said, "Percy, slow down, you're going to get me run over, or worse run over someone else." I hadn't realized it but during my panic I had sped up and pedestrians were yelling at me to watch out. Ugh, New Yorkers. Way to be rude. Couldn't they see that I was panicking? But then again, I guess that it's a good thing that I had sped up, because then I probably would have left Annabeth in the middle of the sidewalk and then Thalia would have had a reason to kill me.

I was once more jostled out of my thoughts by Annabeth's voice. "Percy, why have we stopped?" Oh whoops, I had stopped while I was in the process of thinking about things. I looked around for an excuse to tell Annabeth about why we had stopped and my eyes landed on this ugly looking coat in the window of a shop. To others, the coat might be cool looking, but to me, it really wasn't worth looking at. It would probably cost a lot of money too.

"Oh yeah, I just stopped to look at this fabulous looking coat in one of the windows that's on sale." I said causally, with a hint of sarcasm.

"What color was it?" I couldn't see her face, but I could tell that Annabeth was smiling.

"Blue of course. I wouldn't have stopped if it wasn't blue." I said jokingly.

"Well don't just stand there. Go and buy it!" She said slowly turning around to look at me.

"Nah," I said. "I would look too fashionable in it and other people would be jealous of my good looks."

"We wouldn't want that now would we?" she said, as I started to push her wheelchair down the sidewalk

"But of course not." I said jokingly.

We were still a good 15 minute walk from where we were, but Annabeth and I talked easily from then on as if we weren't just now getting to know each other from being ten years apart.

* * *

"SWINGS!" I shouted while running when we got to the park part of the park, also known as the playground of Central Park.

"Percy!" Annabeth called after me, but I couldn't stop, I didn't want to stop. The urge to go on the swings was too strong... I couldn't help myself, I ran and tackled a swing yelling "BONZAI!" In the process. I probably scared some pigeons and maybe some adults, but what can I say? I may be a 23 year old man on the outside, but on the inside (and Thalia tells me this often) I act like a six year old.

When I got on the swing, I spotted Annabeth rolling over to me with a smirk on her face.

She rolled her eyes and said "Percy I swear to the gods you are a 6 year old."

"Not you too! Thalia tells me that all the time. I guess I will just have to show you just how unchildish I can be." I said teasingly. "But for today, I can act as childish as I want."

I didn't give her a chance to respond, because just then, I marched over to where she was sitting, picked her up, stomped over to an empty swing and attempted to set her on a swing.

"Percy!" Annabeth said almost squealing with delight after I had picked her up. "Put me down this instant!" She yelled at me. But I could tell through the sound of her voice that she didn't really want to be sat down.

"Okay." I said, even though I didn't want to sit her down either. She fit in my arms perfectly.

And with that, I plopped her down on the swing, it wasn't easy because the swing kept moving, but with Annabeth's help, I managed.

* * *

About half an hour later, we were still at the park, acting as childish as we could. We were after all at a park surrounded by children.

BABOOM! We heard suddenly heard the thunder roll and the lightening strike far off in the distance.

"Percy we had better get going." Annabeth said.

"Aw but Annabeth, I don't want to go!" I said like a child, stomping my foot.

"Now now Percy, we an come back later, for now we have to get out of the coming storm," Annabeth said in a motherly, yet playful tone.

"Do you promise?" I asked.

"Yes Percy I promise." Annabeth said sighing.

"Fine" I finally relented, taking the handlebars of her wheelchair and pushing us off.

* * *

We were just exiting the park and entering the busy city when it started pouring rain, and then suddenly once more, I was soaking wet, I guess it's a good thing that we had brought and umbrella.

"Percy, where's the umbrella?" Annabeth said with alarm.

"Oh crap, I think I left it at the park! I'll be right back." I said taking off in a run.

I could hear Annabeth yelling about how I would get hypothermia if I did that and it would be better if we just found a place to stay dry until the storm let out. But me being the person I am, ignored her and ran back to the park anyways for the umbrella.

When I got to the park I searched and searched, but I couldn't find the stupid umbrella.

10 minutes later, I was completely soaked to the bone and exhausted, so I headed back to the spot where I had left Annabeth. Oh gods, I just left Annabeth there, without anything to keep her dry with. I wouldn't blame her if she had left and headed home.

I was in for a surprise though when I returned to the street where I had last seen Annabeth. She was still sitting there in her chair p, but she had an umbrella to protect her from the still pouring rain. Phew, she didn't leave me. Better yet, she was dry.

Wait a minute, where'd she get the umbrella? I was just out looking for it and she had it the whole time?! I went out there for no reason? Was that why she had been yelling after me when I left?

I walked over and asked "Where'd you get the umbrella?"

With a smirk on her face Annabeth said "If you hadn't run off, you would have realized that it would be better to go into a restaurant or something until the storm passed. But after you left, 30 seconds later, I found the umbrella beneath my seat. I have been waiting for you for over 10 minutes. Now are you ready to go home?"

"Hmmm, I think I've got one more trick up my sleeve before we get going." I said, grabbing the handlebars of her chair and steering her through a nearby door leading to a bowling alley.

When we were 11, Annabeth had a birthday party at a bowling alley. She invited me and a few other kids from camp to the party and we had the best time. I haven't been bowling since, but have wanted to go back for the longest of time, preferably with Annabeth. Here was my chance and I wasn't going to miss that opputunity.

"Percy I can't bowl." Annabeth stated once she realized what I had in mind.

"I'll help you. Besides, I don't know about you, but I'm not quite ready to go home just yet." I said pulling up to the counter where we would be getting our shoes. Or at least I would be. The person at the counter gave us a strange look but didn't say anything once I glared at him, daring him to say something.

Once I had my shoes, I rolled Annabeth over to an empty lane and gave her a purple and blue bowling ball.

"Why are you looking at me like I have 3 heads?" I asked when she gave me a strange look about handing her the ball.

"Because Percy, the only way I'd be able to get the ball to have enough momentum to be able to hit at least one pin is if I were in a standing position, that's not something that I can do right now. "Annabeth said looking frustrated.

"Did you not hear me when I said that I would help you? I said grinning at her, when she looked at me skeptically I added "Don't worry, I have a plan."

She sighed, but didn't protest when I adjusted her chair.

I didn't even know if my plan would work, I just was going with the flow so that Annabeth wouldn't feel like I wasn't trying, or like she couldn't do anything because she was in a wheelchair for the time being. The Annabeth that I know would try to do everything in her power to be able to do the most difficult of tasks to do while in a wheel chair before she would ask for help. With bowling, she would be forced to ask for help unless she forfeited, but she wouldn't do that, because she wasn't given a chance to ask for help.

So I rolled her over to the carpeted place where players sit while waiting their turn at the game and said to Annabeth; "Get ready to roll the ball when I give you the signal." With that, I pushed her chair as fast as I could without running other people over or being disruptive.

"Now!" I said loudly when I though that we were good enough for her to successfully roll the ball and hit the pins. For some reason though, Annabeth waited a couple of seconds before she tossed the ball. It was rolling, rolling and "STRIKE!" I could hear Annabeth practically shout.

"Haha! You did it!" I said laughing with joy. I was practically jumping up and down with excitement.

"What would you expect? This is me we are talking about." Annabeth said grinning. Her face was flushed from the excitement, but I could tell that she was proud.

We played a few more rounds until the game ended with Annabeth winning and me trailing a few points behind. Even though I hadn't been bowling for quite some time, I wasn't that bad once I got used to it.

"Phew!" I said wiping my eyebrow. I was sweating from pushing Annabeth, plus my own bowling.

"What? Are you tired?" Annabeth teased. "We can go for another round of you want."

"We could, but I'd beat your butt when you don't get any help from me." I said teasing back.

"Are you sure that you want to play that way?" She said with a grin on her face.

"Nah, right now I want some food." I said heading over to the cafeteria area of the bowling alley.

"Fine, but after that, we go for another round and I'll prove to you that I can still beat you without any help." Annabeth said behind me.

We found a place to sit after we received our food and the first thing I noticed was that our spot had a good vantage point to the tv. Right now the news was on so I didn't really pay attention, but it held Annabeth captive. Great, I was competing with a tv for the attention of Annabeth, and right now, it was winning. So because the tv had Annabeth's attention, and I couldn't seem to draw her away from it, we pretty much ate in silence.

That is until I heard Annabeth gasp. I looked up at the tv to see a picture of a familiar looking boy, he had blond hair and hazel eyes. The picture was of Ryan...

* * *

 **Yay! That was fun! I know some people reviewed asking for longer chapters, so I hope this granted your wish. It was over 2,500 words (not counting this portion) and about 5 pages in Word.**

 **I also want to thank you for being so patient with my updating. It's been raining for almost 2 weeks now, and my internet is so bad that when we get a lot of rain, the google homepage won't even load and usually that's something I can count on. So that's why I haven't been able to update. Plus it took me a long time to write this because my sister and I just found some newborn kittens and I've been spending an hour with them each day because I'm under strict orders from my friend to make them social since she's supposedly adopting one. So yeah, that's my excuse for the lack of updating. That and the interim period just ended, so everybody's under stress.**

 **Don't just sit there! Move you're mouse to that review box thingie in the right corner of the screen, and start typing!**


	15. The Call

**Oh me oh my. It's been quite a while since I've last updated. And believe me when I say that I've been meaning to do so for forever. But now that its summer, hopefully I'll have more time. I just don't know though cause my birthday is coming up next weekend, I'm planning on having a party since I'll be turning 16, but I have to do a lot of cleaning. Which I've been avoiding. Another reason I haven't updated: I couldn't think of anything to put for this chapter and then one evening a couple weeks ago, I was sitting down thinking about this, and suddenly it came to me!**

 **Mystery gurl 21- You shall see…**

 **AGirlLostInTime- My response is the same to you about seeing in the future. As for the beta reader, chapter 14 didn't turn out so well grammatically because it was really late when I wrote that. I had originally had the chapter on my laptop, but with the internet not working at the time, I had to retype it on my iPad and that didn't work as well as I thought it would.**

 **DaughterOfPoseidon-HorseLover- Sorry I took so long to put this up!**

 **TheSelflessPanda- I actually have yet to decide with whom I want Ryan to end up with. You're in for as much of a surprise as I am. Hopefully we all like the ending though.**

 **Now that it is summer time perhaps, I can update more. But who knows. For now, you'll just have to deal with this. Oh, and just a heads up, Sammy is going to be in this chapter. But he won't be old, he'll just be a friend of Hazel's growing up in new Orleans. He also won't be a rancher living in Texas either. One more thing, Piper and Jason aren't dating just yet.**

 _Hazel's point of view_

 _Way before Annabeth and Percy's date_

Why is it that people always have such bad intentions for such innocent people? Even when those innocent people haven't done anything wrong?

When Annabeth told us about her first encounter with Ryan I couldn't get it out of my head. Why would anyone want to do anything so evil? I just couldn't understand it.

Even after the movie, I couldn't stop thinking about what she had told us. I had to do something. Until now, I never fully realized that these types of things went on every day.

I lie awake for hours after everyone fell asleep. And I wasn't just thinking about Ryan either. I was thinking about what I would do to make sure something like this didn't happen again. I wanted to make sure that I could do something about it. I still couldn't figure out what it was that someone like me could do. How could a person who didn't even have a job in these types of things figure out what to do and then prevent it? How many friends and families were worrying over about someone who had gone missing and couldn't do anything about it? How many of these missing people died and those friends and families would never even get to say goodbye?

I finally fell asleep during the early hours of the morning, when the early birds of the day headed to work. I could hear the motors of their cars moving around on the streets and eventually my eyes closed and I was fast asleep.

 _A few hours later_

"Hazel" I heard the cat in my dreams say. For some reason this cat could speak English, instead of its normal "meow" and sounded a lot like Piper.

"Hazel wake up" I could feel someone shaking me awake.

I mumbled something about not getting enough sleep and turned over in the opposite direction.

"Hazel now is not the time for beauty sleep. I need to go to work and you just so happen to be my ride. So get your tooshie up and get dressed! I had better not be late because of you." I heard Piper holler as she headed towards the kitchen. A second later, I was asleep once more.

"HAZEL! I swear to all the gods, you had better be up and dressed or you are going to end up taking me to work in your pajamas." I heard Piper yell as she entered the living room.

"I'm up! I'm up!" I said. Sheesh. She was grumpy. I quickly put on something; I didn't even know what it was and headed out the door.

"Piper! You had better be ready, or I will leave without you." I shouted as I opened the door.

"Who are you yelling at? I'm right here!" I heard Piper say as I headed towards my car. Oh, whoopsies.

For some reason, while I was driving her, Piper was unusually quiet. Either she was mad, or she was thinking. Or both.

I decided to risk her wrath and asked "Okay. What's wrong? And don't tell me nothing because I see that look." It was her I'm-thinking-about-something-that's-making-me-mad-at-the-world look.

"It's nothing okay?" Piper said with an annoyed sight. But I could see that it wasn't "nothing". Her tone and sigh hadn't covered up the sadness, worry and anger in her voice. She was obviously concerned about something.

I gave her a look about saying "it's nothing" when I had told her not to.

"I know it's not nothing so don't say that it is." I said glancing at her.

"I just… I don't know what to do with Fredrich anymore." Piper said.

I guess I should explain Fredrich. He is a German exchange student at the university that piper is attending and soon after they met, they started dating. None of us really knew him except Piper and because of that; we didn't know what to think of him. He was cute, but he was kind of a trouble maker.

"What's he done this time?" I asked.

Piper hesitated before saying "I caught him flirting with another girl again."

"Again?! Piper, that's the third time this month! You have to talk to him."

"I have." She said quietly

"And he hasn't stopped?" I asked

She didn't say anything but that just confirmed my question.

We didn't talk again until we got to the salon where Piper worked. Both of us were thinking and the silence was comfortable.

Before she got out I said "Piper, I would talk to him again. Give him one more chance and if he doesn't listen, then call it off."

She just nodded and started getting out of the car.

While she was getting out I called to her saying "Oh and don't think you and I aren't talking about this when I pick you up later!"

I just heard her say "yeah whatever" before I drove away. I had some things of my own that needed to be done. It was a good thing that I had called for a day off at work though. Otherwise I would have been late.

As I pulled into my parking spot, I realized that I needed to make that call for Ryan! It was still early though so I had time. I opened the door to my apartment and once more realized something. I didn't know the number for my contact in New Orleans! I guess I had better start searching.

An hour later I was rummaging through a box of my old papers and finally found the number on a flashcard. Aha! Now to find my phone. I looked around, searching for my phone. While I was looking for the number, I had created quite a mess and somewhere underneath all those old papers and boxes was my phone.

"I couldn't have bothered to clean up after myself?" I mumbled.

Stepping over the boxes and papers I went to go find the home phone. It would take me another hour to clean up and I wanted to call before noon. I checked my watch and found that it was only 10:45. I had plenty of time.

When I reached for the phone, I suddenly got nervous. What if he didn't want to help? What if this number wasn't his?

Well then too bad. The brave part of me said. It'll be his loss not yours. Besides, if you don't call him, you won't be able to help Ryan.

Before I lost my nerve, I dialed up that old number and waited.

 _In New Orleans_

 _Sammy's point of view_

"Riiiiing!" I could hear the phone ring from my office.

"Hey Abby! Will you get that for me?" I holler to my wife in the kitchen.

I heard her mumble something about doing too much work for a pregnant woman.

"Valdez residence how may I help you?" I heard her say.

She listened for a second before saying "I'm afraid he can't come to the phone right now, would you like me to take a message?"

I had come into the hall where the phone was and listened while they talked.

She paused once more and said "Alright, well I'll tell him you called. Goodbye!"

"I could have talked to whomever that was you know." I said softly so as not to scare her. She jumped anyway.

"Goodness Sammy, you scared me!" she said turning around.

"Who was that by the way?" I asked

"Someone named Hazel."

I stared at her in disbelief.

"Hazel? Hazel Levesque?"

"I think that was it." She said hesitantly. "Why, do you know her?"

"I did." I said shaking my head in amazement. What would she have wanted to cause her to call after all these years? "She was an old friend of mine growing up." I said when I saw my wife's look of confusion and jealousy.

"Did she say what she wanted?" I asked

"No, all she said was that she would just call back later." My wife said, heading for the kitchen.

Two days later, she fulfilled her promise. This time however, I was the one to answer the phone.

"Hello?" I said. When I heard the phone ring, I was the first to get to it in hopes that Hazel would be the one calling.

"Hi, this is Hazel Levesque. Is this Sammy?" I heard her say on the other side of the phone.

"Yes this is he. How are you?" I said excitedly.

"I'm great. Listen, I have a favor to ask." She told me the story about the little boy a friend of hers had met and asked me to use my job status as an FBI agent for kidnappings to help her return him home.

"Of course I'll help." I said grabbing a piece of paper and a pen. "I'll need his full name, age, and where he is from."

"Ummmm…" I heard her say.

"Hazel please tell me you know all this, if not it will be impossible to find out who he is and get him home."

"I can tell you his name and age, just not where he is from. He doesn't know himself. His name is Ryan Smith and he's three years old."

"I don't suppose that you know his birth date?"

"I don't know, but I'll find out. He's with one of my friends. How about I call them up and ask and then I can call you back?" she asked.

I agreed and we hung up.

Five minutes later, the phone rang once more and I hear Hazel say "October 17th. That's Ryan's birthday."

"Great, that's all I need. I will get back to you when I have something" I said, heading towards my office.

"Perfect." She said.

Just before she was about to hang up, I said, "Oh and Hazel? It was nice talking to you."

"Yeah, same. I just wish it was under better circumstances." I heard her sigh.

"Me too." I said goodbye, and then hung up. I had work to do.

 _Hazel's point of view_

After I hung with Sammy, I dialed the phone once more. I was contacting the tv news office. I had a story I needed to tell them. Maybe it would help us to find Ryan's mom… It would be my last hope of finding someone who loved Ryan.

 **I hope you guys liked this chapter. Please review!**

 **P.S This chapter is dedicated to the people who died during the Isis attacks this week. I'm praying for the people involved. Whether their intentions were good or bad, I hope they know that they are in my prayers.** **Even if they do believe that what they are doing is for the good of everyone else, it causes harm to those around them. God please guide them to the right path.**


	16. New Love?

**Okay, so I'm writing this now and posting it in case I can't get it up before my birthday. Technically, I'm supposed to be cleaning but my mom and I have been watching so many Criminal Minds episodes it's not even funny. So since its midnight and I took a really long nap this morning, I'm going to write this now and get it out of my system so that I can work on cleaning.**

 **Abcathena- Thank you so much for your reviews, your words of encouragement helped me out, so once again, thanks for that.**

 **Desperate- I'm glad you like it.**

 **DemigodSassReaders- Was it a good interesting or a bad interesting?**

 **Notice; This next chapter could be long, so brace yourselves!**

 _Annabeth's point of view_

 _At the bowling alley_

"If you know him, or have any information about this boy, please call…"

Before I could even register that my number was on the television screen above, my phone started ringing.

I hadn't even said "hello" when the person on the other end started speaking.

"You shouldn't have done that." I heard a female voice say. She sounded scared.

"I shouldn't have done what?" I asked really confused

"I don't have much time. I need to speak to him. Will you let me speak to my boy?" she said desperately. Suddenly it dawned on me. This was Ryan's mom speaking to me.

"He… he is with one of my friends, in good care. I promise." I said carefully.

"Meet me at The Meatball Shop tomorrow at 4. Bring my son with you." Her words sounded rushed and I could tell I was about to be hung up on.

"How will I know it's you?" I quickly said before she had the chance to hang up.

"You just will." With that, the mysterious person on the other end of the phone hung up.

"What was that about?" Percy asked once I had hung up.

"I'm not really sure. I think I just spoke to Ryan's mom. Or at least someone who knows him."

Percy's jaw dropped. "Well did she want to take him home?"

"Not quite. The person I spoke to on the phone sounded scared. As if because of what was on the news both she and Ryan were in danger. It doesn't make sense." I heard Percy gulp once I had said this.

"Annabeth did the woman on the phone whisper when she talked? Did she say that she didn't have much time?" What was he getting at?

"Yeah, why?"

"I'm not one hundred percent sure but what if Ryan's mom took him away and left him at Target for a reason. What if that reason was abuse? What if that was her way of protecting him?" This time, my jaw was the one to drop.

"Then putting him on the news was a bad idea as well as a brilliant one. Speaking of which, who did this anyways?"

Before Percy could answer, my phone dinged. It was a text from the group chat.

Thalia: Annabeth why is your phone number on the news?

Me: I haven't a clue

Hazel: That was me; I figured that it was our best chance of finding Ryan's mom.

Me: Well it worked. She just contacted me not two minutes ago.

Piper: You guys shhhh. I'm at work.

Juniper: That's great! Does she want her son back?

Me: Not necessarily

Juniper L

Thalia: What do you mean not necessarily?! What mother doesn't want to see her son after he went missing?

Me: Percy and I think that Ryan's father abuses them and she took him away to protect him

Piper: Which btw, how is the date with Percy?

Juniper: Piper, I thought that you said you were at work.

Piper: I am. I'm just having lunch now.

Thalia: Can we get back to the point at hand please?

Me: She wants to meet at the Meatball Shop tomorrow at 4 and we are supposed to bring Ryan with us.

Juniper: Who's the us?

Me: I was planning on bringing Percy. You know, just in case something happens.

Piper: AWWW! He'll be your Knight in Percy armor. Percabeth here we come!

Thalia: Annabeth and Percy sittin in a tree

Juniper: K-I-S-S-I-N-G

Me: You guys! Focus!

Piper: Right. Sorry

Hazel: Do you want us to come to? You know, to be your support and backup

Me: Idk. Do you guys want to come?

Hazel: I can't. I already took today off and if I miss one more day I could get fired

Piper: I wouldn't miss it for the world

Juniper: Should I bring the boys? You know, so that they can witness something special?

Piper: You just want Grover there so that he can protect you… :P

Juniper: That too.

Thalia: I think that's a good idea. We could do some catching up in the meantime.

Me: So it's all set then. Everyone, meet us at the Meatball Shop at 3. Spread the word.

With that, our conversation ended.

I looked up to find Percy staring at me. I almost found it creepy until I realized it was a look of adoration.

"You know, you are really adorable when you plan things." He said

"And how do you know I was planning something?" I asked

"Because you get this look of concentration on your face and your eyebrows are constantly scrunching up and down as if you are thinking really hard about something."

"My eyebrows scrunch?" I asked confused.

He laughed and said "Really Annabeth, that's all you got out of what I said?"

I looked down, embarrassed. "No! I… Yes?" I wasn't really sure what to say.

He just laughed again. "You're eyebrow scrunching again." Suddenly I found myself laughing with him. His laughter was one of those things that are contagious. It wasn't a bad contagious. No, this was something good. His laughter was something that I couldn't get enough of. So I found myself laughing alongside with him. I realized that once you started, you couldn't stop, no matter how hard you tried. I think that was the moment when I realized I had fallen for Percy.

My laughter ceased almost as soon as it had started. Did I just admit that I was in love with Percy? It's been what? Almost 2 months since I had broken things off with Luke and already I was in love with another man? What was up with that? Shouldn't I be waiting? This is not the type of thing that you just rush into. Of course, Percy didn't know that I liked him, so I still had the chance of taking things slow. But was this what I really wanted, to get involved with another man so soon after breaking up? Was I even ready?

"What's the matter Wise Girl?" I heard Percy ask. But I didn't answer. I couldn't even look at him. I was afraid that if he saw my face, he'd know, and that wasn't something I was sure I wanted.

"Annabeth?" he said softly.

"Will you come with me to go see Ryan's mom tomorrow?" I asked him changing the subject before it could start.

He didn't look surprised that she wanted to meet. "Of course." I felt him put his hand on mine. "Anything you need." His hand was soft, not at all what I was expecting. Yet, it felt right, like we were supposed to be together.

"Oh and one more thing." I said, finally finding the courage to look him in the eyes. "The rest of the gang will be there. You know, just for support or whatever." He nodded, with an understanding in his eyes. If anyone could understand what was going on, it was Percy. And I had a feeling he would be the one to help the rest of us get through it all.

 **Now that was a lot of fun to write. My head is bustling around with so many ideas for this story. Actually now that I think about it, I've got something to say… A year ago, around the month of May, I had a dream which I based on this story. So all of you reviewers who are loving the plot, thank my dream! That sounds kinda weird, but if it weren't for that dream I wouldn't be writing this right now.**

 **REVIEW!**


	17. Waiting

**Hey ya'll! Glad you liked the last chapter! Or at least I** ** _hope_** **you liked the chapter, I don't know though because only 3 people reviewed. I was quite disappointed, even though the reviews were way awesome.**

 **ZOBOT- Thanks so much for reviewing on those chapters! They made me smile, especially the most recent one.** **J**

 **Guest-I'm pleased that you think it's good, I worked hard on it so it had better be ;P**

 **DemigodSassReaders- I am delighted that you find this story interesting. I'll be honest; I didn't think that many people would.**

 **Reminder; This chapter could be long. I'm making it up as I go so I don't even know. It will also be shifting from several different point of views, so keep track.**

 _Percy's point of view_

 _At his apartment, a few hours after the date_

"Percy!" Ryan yelled when he saw me once I had gotten home from the date. Katie had been babysitting and she had just left, finally giving me a chance to tell Ryan the great news.

Ever since we had bonded that night from his bad dream, Ryan became very happy (to the point of being hyper) when he saw me.

"Hey Little Dude! I've got something to tell you." I said once I had given him a hug.

He started looking around as if he thought I was hiding a surprise.

"Did you bring me a present?" I wasn't surprised by his question. Lately, it wasn't unusual for me to come home with a toy or something for him. I couldn't help myself whenever I saw the toy isle at whatever store, so I often stopped by there to see what I could find. Whenever he was at my apartment, Ryan was spoiled.

"Even better. Tomorrow, we are going to see your mom!"

"Mommy?" he said confused. "We are gonna see Annabeth?"

Wait. He actually thought that Annabeth was his mom? Had it been so long since he had seen his mom that he didn't remember her? Or was it that he didn't want to remember her so he just imagined a different person to be his mom?

"No silly, Annabeth is not your mom. We are going to see your real mom. The one who takes care of you and loves you very much. And if you are good, she might even take you home. You remember her right?"

He started crying. "But I don't wanna go home." he said between sniffles. "Home is scary. Home has mean man with stick. Why can't I stay here?"

I wasn't sure what to say.

"I promise, no one is going to hurt you. We are just going to see her at a sandwich shop. You'd like that right? You'll even have your own personal bodyguards." In actuality it would just be our friends, but he didn't need to know that. "She doesn't even have to take you home; we are just going to visit her. Will that be alright? We can even get ice cream afterwards."

I think it was the promise of ice cream that finally made him happy to oblige to seeing his mom, but half an hour later, we were on our way to go and see Grover to tell him the great news.

 ** _OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO_**

"Hey Grover, I've got news!" I said once Grover had answered the door to his apartment.

"What's up man?" he greeted, opening the door wide enough to let Ryan and me in.

"I think we found Ryan's mom! She wants to meet us tomorrow at the Meatball Shop." I said excitedly.

"MOMMY!" Ryan said very enthusiastically when he heard me say the word "mom". He started bouncing up and down. And then all of a sudden Ryan was everywhere. He grabbed his toys and made them "fly", he was running around as if he were superman, he was literally doing so many things at once it was hard for even an ADHD kid to keep track of.

"Did you really find her?" Grover asked. It might have been the lighting, but I could have sworn that there were tears in his eyes.

Meanwhile, Ryan was still bouncing off the walls.

"Hey! Little Dude, we are inside, so could you keep you outside voice for when we are outside?" I called to Ryan.

"Sowwy!" it seemed to work because a minute later, he had sat down and quietly resumed playing with his toys.

I nodded and told him the story. When I was finished, Grover didn't say a word. He just kept muttering to himself, as if this were bad news instead of good.

"Hey man, what's the matter?" I asked, concerned.

"I just don't want him to go." Grover said. This time, when he looked up, I could see the tears in his eyes.

"Believe me. I don't want him to go either, but if he gets the chance to live with his mom, then we had better give him that chance. It wouldn't be right for a child to live without his mother. Besides, we don't even know if she wants to have him back. Annabeth said she sounded pretty frightened on the phone."

"But Percy, she gave him up for a reason. You said so yourself, Ryan might have been abused. If we can give him the opportunity for a happy life, with the love and support that he will need, why not do so?" it was almost like Grover was trying to convince me to not give Ryan up. But what Grover didn't understand was that I wouldn't be giving Ryan up without a fight. Not without a really good reason to do so. And if it came down to going to court, then I would do it.

"Look, I'm not saying that I'll be giving him up just like that." I snapped my fingers to emphasize my point. "I'm just saying that we need to see what was going on for a mother to give up her son. It wouldn't be right to do otherwise."

He nodded and I knew that I had gotten my point across.

"Hey, Annabeth was thinking of inviting everyone to the Meatball Shop when we do this. Do you want to come?" I asked.

"You know I wouldn't miss it." he said.

"Okay great. Be there by 3." I said, gathering my stuff to leave.

"Ryan, it's time to go, get your stuff." I said.

"Bye Percy, see ya Ryan." Grover said as we were leaving.

I sighed as we got into the car. Talking to Grover about it made the reality of our situation scarier. I started to realize that this might be the last car ride I got with Ryan if his mom wanted him back. I had better make the rest of the day worth it.

 _Annabeth's point of view_

 _At Thalia's house_

"Annabeth, calm down. Everything is going to be fine." I heard Thalia say to me.

For some reason, I was a nervous wreck when it became almost time to leave for the Meatball Shop.

"Do I need to call Percy to make you calm down?" Thalia said.

"No!" I almost shouted "I can't have him see me like this." I added quietly.

It took her a minute to comprehend what I was saying. Then, for the second time this week, Thalia got a look of utter disbelief on her face.

"Annabeth Chase. Are you saying what I think you're saying?" she questioned with a smirk on her face.

"Maybe." I admitted shyly.

"I thought you weren't sure if you wanted to be in a relationship just yet." Thalia said. Her teasing tone from just a second before was gone.

"I didn't say that I wanted to be in a relationship with him. I just… I don't even know anymore. All I know is that I feel something for him, though I have yet to decide where I want to proceed from here." I said truthfully.

Thalia nodded and we sat in silence for about five minutes, both of us thinking our own thoughts.

RING!

Our silence was interrupted by the ring of my phone.

"Hello. Is this Annabeth Chase?" I heard the person on the other end say.

"Yes, who is this?" I asked

"This is Polly from the hospital. You were scheduled to have a check up on your broken leg and ribs today, yet you never showed. I am just checking in and seeing if you can reschedule the appointment any time soon."

Oh crap! I was supposed to have that appointment today at 1!

"I am so sorry, I totally forgot. I have a lot going on right now, and for some reason it isn't marked on my calendar." I looked at Thalia. She had been listening in on my conversation and had her mouth shaped in an O. She had been the one in charge of making sure everything was on point while I was in the hospital, meaning it was her job to mark all appointments on the calendar. I glared at her and then in a cheery voice to Polly asked "Is it possible to reschedule for sometime tomorrow or the next day?"

"Let me check…" there was a pause on Polly's end and then "Why yes! You're in luck. Would tomorrow at 9am work?"

"That would be great thanks!" I said

"Alright, I'll see you then."

"Okay, have a good day." I said and then hung up.

Before I had time to kill Thalia, the security alarm signaled that the front door had opened. "Was someone supposed to come over that I didn't know about?" I asked. Thalia shrugged in an "I don't know" manner and went into the hall to greet whoever was there.

"Hey Thalia!" I heard a familiar voice greet.

"Sup Perce." Thalia greeted back. Oh gods. Had Thalia invited Percy over even though I told her not to? I quickly checked my reflection in my phone, which was weird because it wasn't something that I would normally do, and rolled out to go greet Percy.

Only I found that it wasn't just Percy at the door. It was Ryan too, and Piper.

When I came in, Piper was gushing over how cute Ryan looked in the outfit that I had bought for him. When Percy and I went shopping, I splurged and bought Ryan a blue Spiderman shirt underneath a blue winter coat and jeans with some Spiderman light up sneakers to match his shirt.

But it was Percy who caught my attention. He was dressed in a nice work shirt and some jeans. It was almost as if he had dressed up for the occasion. His hair, even though he had evidently tried to flatten it down, was windblown from the gusty wind outside. Once more, I'd say that he looked good.

Once I came in though, Percy's focus shifted from talking to Thalia to me. I hadn't dressed to impress but for some reason, he couldn't take his eyes off me. Thalia though, had noticed his staring for she started making faces at me behind his back, and I had a hard time trying not to laugh. I did however, end up smiling.

I guess that Percy thought that this smile was directed at him, though it sort of was, because he just smiled back, not saying a word.

"Annabeth!" Ryan said once he saw me.

"Hey buddy!" I said, picking him and placing him on my lap. "How are you?"

"I get to see my mommy today!" Ryan said once he was settled.

"Do you really?" I said in that childlike voice reserved specifically for him.

"Uh huh." he said nodding.

"Are you excited?" I asked.

"Yup. And Percy says I get my own body guards." At first I was confused but then I realized that Ryan's would be body guards were just my friends and I.

I stole a glance at Percy, who for some reason looked proud when Ryan announced he would have body guards.

"Annabeth, you never mentioned how cute Ryan is!" Piper said interrupting.

"Honestly, I've never really thought about it before." I said truthfully. And why would I? Appearance wasn't something that I took notice of, before now that is. Lately I found myself checking my reflection; I didn't want to look too bad in front of Percy.

"Alright everyone, if we don't leave now, we will be late. And we all know how Annabeth here likes to be on time." Thalia said grabbing her coat. Everyone chuckled at the comment and we headed out.

 _Piper's point of view_

 _At the Meatball Shop_

As soon as I saw _him_ my insides melted.

We had finally arrived at the meatball shop, the four of us and were waiting for the others when a blond haired, blue eyed pretty boy came through the door. When he came closer, I realized that his eyes looked somewhat familiar. Like I had seen them somewhere before but I couldn't place from when or where.

And then he headed towards us. Specifically to Grover and Percy.

"Sup Jason." I heard Percy say. Jason?! As in Thalia's younger brother Jason? No wonder his eyes looked familiar. They were the exact same as Thalia's. I should have recognized him. Sure I had only met him once, he was shorter then, less lean, but nevertheless he was the same.

"Jason my man. Glad you could come." Grover said happily.

Jason nodded to each guy and then looked at Ryan. Grinning, he said "Is this the person I am supposed to be body guarding?"

"Sure is." Grover said.

"I thought there were more body guards." Ryan said looking around.

"They will be here soon." Percy promised. I wasn't one hundred percent sure, but it seemed like he was getting antsy. I would be too though if I were about to meet the mom of someone who might have unintentionally given up her son.

"Jason, this is Piper, Annabeth, and I'm sure you already know your sister." Percy introduced us with a smile, pointing to each person as he said our name.

"So this is the famous Annabeth Chase. Percy has talked so much about you. It's nice to finally meet you." Jason said holding his hand out for Annabeth to shake. For some reason, I was jealous that Jason seemed to be focusing on Annabeth. But why should I be? I'm with Fredrich right now. Well, sort of. He has yet to tell me what's going on.

"Hi." Annabeth said, taking his hand and shaking it.

Jason's attention then switched to his sister. "Hey sis." He said with a grin on his face, giving her a hug. I couldn't help but notice that when he grinned the little scar on his upper lip better. It gave Jason character, it made him unique, it made me believe that he was different.

"Long time no see." I heard Thalia say. Jason's back was towards me, so when Thalia hugged him, she looked at me and winked. As if she knew exactly what I was thinking.

When the hug was over, Jason finally turned his attention to me.

"Hey Piper, it's been too long." Jason said, once more holding out his hand for me to shake. When I grabbed a hold of it to shake, I felt a spark. It was something that I hadn't felt in a long time.

"Agreed." I said while shaking his hand.

"So, who are we waiting on?" Grover asked

"Well, there's Frank, Leo and Nico." Percy answered.

"And Hazel can't come but Juniper will be." Annabeth added.

"Cool. So do you guys want to order a sandwich or something while we wait?" I asked.

"Yes please. I'm starving." Percy said.

"Percy, you're always hungry." Annabeth teased.

"What's wrong with that?"

"All that food is going to go to your hips."

"Is that so wise girl?"

"You can bet on that seaweed brain."

The playful bantering continued while we waited in line.

"Would you look at that, they are already starting on nicknames." I muttered as I listened the teasing and watched Annabeth playfully slap Percy on the shoulder.

"Sooner or later they will start dating." I heard someone say behind me. I turned around to see Jason. I guess I hadn't been as quiet as I had thought.

"You can bet on that." I said turning so that I could talk to Jason and still watch the two lovebirds.

"So what's been new with you Pipes?" Jason asked. It was the first time in a while that someone had called me that nickname.

"It's been what? 4 years since I last saw you?" I asked.

"I believe so."

"Nothing much then. The most that has happened is finding Ryan. That's pretty much it." I said.

Before Jason could respond, the door opened and in walked the rest of our group. I waved them over and told them that we were ordering and doing whatever until Ryan's mom came.

For the rest of the hour, Jason and I talked. We caught up on the things that had happened. I told him about my work, college, and just other things in general and he told me about his life. I found myself opening up to him faster than I had ever done for anyone else.

And then finally, a woman walked in and I just knew. The moment we had all been waiting for had arrived. Ryan's mother had just walked in the door. It was time.

 **I know that I said this chapter was going to be long, and it sort of is in the sense that it is longer than the other ones, but I wanted to make the meeting its on chapter. I doubt that I will be able to get anything up before Monday, so in the meantime, you are stuck with this. It would be a great birthday present if I could have a lot of reviews. Hint hint, wink wink, nudge nudge. Bye for now!**


	18. The Lady in the Red Coat

**Hehe. Whoops! Long time no update. How does everyone like school? I personally love it, of course I've always loved school in general but now I'm just like YAY! Homework! Things to do! (No, I'm not being sarcastic, I do like homework). Okie dokie, I'm going to make this note short because I'm sure you all are quite eager to read the actual story. Hehe... I'm in the weirdest mood right now. I keep giggling. That is a funny word. Giggle. STORY TIME!**

 _Annabeth's point of view_

At first, when some part of me heard the bell on the door ring, I didn't register that another customer had walked in. But then I could hear our group get quiet, which significantly changed the noise level in the shop, and then suddenly Percy and I were the only ones talking.

A lady, who couldn't have been older than 30, walked in with an old red coat on. She had messy blond hair, almost like Percy's in a way considering how wind blown it was. She had obviously spent time on making herself look presentable, but she also had a seemed exhausted, with dark bags under her hazel eyes, and worry lines along her forehead. It took me a minute, but it finally dawned on me that this was Ryan's mom. In fact, the more I thought about it, the more I could see the similarities between the two. Ryan had inherited his mother's eyes and hair, and they had the same small nose.

I didn't know what to expect when Ryan saw his mom for the first time in two months. I guess I just thought that it would be like in those movies where people who haven't seen each other in a while reunite and they run towards each other with open arms in slow motion with that music that makes you want to smile because it's just so silly yet happy at the same time. But, it was the complete opposite. Ryan had noticed his mom, just like the rest of us, but he was shy. In fact, instead of running towards her, like I thought he would, Ryan hid behind Percy and I. He seemed almost scared, like he wanted nothing to do with the lady in the red coat.

"Annabeth are you listening to a word I say?" Percy asked.

"Percy just shush up for a minute. I need to think." Suddenly I was panicked. I hadn't planned what to do or say once Ryan's mom had arrived. I needed to think of a plan, I always had to have a plan.

At first, Percy seemed kind of offended when I told him to close his mouth, but then it too dawned on him and he started looking around. "I see her too. Wait here." he commanded. The next thing I knew he was heading over to her, almost angrily.

Before he could do or say something though, Percy was interrupted.

"We are here!" I heard a familiar voice say loudly. At the same time, another slightly familiar voice shouted "What'd we miss?!" I turned my head, as did the rest of the shop, and what I saw calmed my nerves.

Leo, Frank and Nico had arrived just in time. They looked like they were ready to bust out some ninja moves. Or at least Leo did, Frank looked embarrassed because he was with Leo and Nico and scooted a few inches away from them as if he didn't want to be associated with the two. Nico, however looked excited. Trying to keep his composure however, he just walked over to me and calmly repeated his question. I didn't say anything, but turned my head and looked at Percy who seemed confused. Thankfully Leo and Nico were loud enough to have gotten the attention of Percy, before he could do anything rash, but we were also getting strange looks from the customers of the Meatball Shop.

Percy just looked at us. From Nico, to me, to Ryan's mom and then to the rest of the shop. To our audience, he just looked at them, raised his hands and shoulders and said "what?!" Realizing that they were staring, everyone resumed their business.

I didn't even register what I was doing, but I found myself going over to Percy. "OW!" I had punched him in the shoulder. "What was that for?" Percy said in a whiny, childlike voice, while rubbing his arm. I actually didn't know why I punched him, I just felt like punching something, and Percy just so happened to be my punching bag for the day. I didn't answer him, but instead focused my attention on the lady in front of us. Her head was down, like she wasn't allowed to look at us or something. What was that about?

"Ryan's mom, I assume." I said putting out my hand for her to shake. Surprisingly, she shook my hand, yet she avoided eye contact and didn't say anything.

"I'm Annabeth, I'm the one who found your son. Why don't we sit down, we can order something to eat, and then we can talk." I said in a friendly voice, while motioning for us to sit at a nearby table. This seemed to get her attention, but it wasn't towards me. Just like what seemed to have been so long ago, Ryan's mom looked up and started searching the restaurant for her son. She seemed hopeful, but when she didn't see him, she finally spoke, "Where is he?" She asked softly, . I almost didn't hear her. "You did bring him didn't you?". I noticed that her accent wasn't from around here, she sounded almost southern.

"Of course I brought him. He's just playing the game of hide and go seek. Probably still waiting to be found." I reassured her, scanning the room to see if he was hiding behind someone. I didn't want to tell her that he probably wouldn't want to see her, that he shyly hid when she came in.

I motioned for Percy to come sit with us. He had wisely let me do the talking and hung back with the rest of the group.

"This is Percy, he and a couple other friends have been helping me take care of Ryan these past two months. I'll be right back, I'm going to go and get Ryan, but Percy can fill you in on what has happened since you last saw him." I got up out of my chair, accidentally making a loud scratching sound against the floor, which the lady seemed to flinch at. Before he could sit down, I grabbed Percy's wrist and whispered to him, "Watch what you say to her, she seems a bit jumpy. Don't tell her that you found him locked in a closet please." He just nodded and started the tale about how we came to know Ryan.

Heading over to our group, who were still ordering our food, I started looking around for the little boy who had stolen my heart. I found myself stopping in my tracks when I realized that this might be the last time that I would see Ryan. His mom might want to take him home, whether or not they are abused.

Before I could let the thought go any further however, I continued my search for Ryan. I headed over to where Thalia and Grover were standing first because besides Percy and I, Grover was one of the people that Ryan trusted the most and would most likely head over there to hide.

"Hey, what's going on over there?" Thalia asked when she saw me heading over.

I explained to them the situation, and asked if they had seen Ryan. They hadn't, but since they had finished ordering, they sat their food down at a table nearby to where Percy and Ryan's mom were seated and helped me look for him. Yet, for some reason, no matter where we looked, and who we asked, Ryan could not be found. He had disappeared. And in a small shop, there weren't many places you could hide. Where was Ryan?

 **Sorry that was short. I wanted to get it up as an early Labor Day present, and since it's going to be a busy weekend for me, I'm not going to be able to work on this story much. So, that's all for now. Please review!**


	19. Strange Goodbyes

**Yay! You guys that was awesome! I got a lot of favorites and follows on that last chapter, and it encouraged me to update. Originally, I wasn't planning on doing so, but since I have a load of homework that I still need to do for Tuesday, I'm doing this now because knowing me, I'll just want to write it instead of doing homework.**

 **Diamond (guest); I just wanted to let you know that of course I will continue writing the story, I don't believe in giving up on such a long term project after working so hard on it. I might not often update when I say I will, but I do try. Thanks for reviewing! ?**

 **As for everyone else, thank you so much for reviewing, following or favoriting me as a writer or the story. I think we all want to get to this chapter, so I'll just go on and let you get to that.**

 _Annabeth's point of view_

"Percy, may I have a word with you?" I asked once I realized that Ryan was missing. We had searched the whole restaurant, and he hadn't turned up anywhere. It was time to be worried. Not that I hadn't started worrying already. No, now I was officially panicked.

"What's the matter?" Percy asked concerned.

"Look, I didn't want to say anything in front of his mom, but we can't Ryan, we've looked everywhere and nada. I can't even be responsible for 10 minutes and boom! I loose one of the most important people in my life." Okay, so maybe I was a bit more than panicked.

"Annabeth!" Percy said grabbing my shoulders. He looked ready to shake me if need be. "Calm down. He probably ventured into the kitchen when no one was looking. You know how he can be when he's hungry. Did you check there?"

How did I not think to look in the kitchen? He was surrounded by food! Of course he'd want to find some food of his own to eat. That's probably even why he had ventured into the candy aisle the day we met.

"You didn't think of that did you?" Percy asked, smirking. He must have seen the expression on my face. I was probably eyebrow scrunching again.

Instead of answering, I just glared at him before heading to a cashier. "Hi, I'm Annabeth, I think my..." What was I supposed to call him? He wasn't my son, so I couldn't call him that, especially with his mom somewhere nearby. But in a way, he was my family. If I had my own son, he would have been raised with same love and affection that I gave to Ryan.

Before I could finish my sentence however, there was a crash coming from the kitchen. Wincing from the noise I said "I think you found him." But the cashier that I had been talking to continued to wait for me to finish the sentence from before. I think she just wanted to make sure I wasn't some ax murdering kidnapper. "Found who exactly?" She asked skeptically.

"It's complicated." I said hoping she would just leave it at that. No such luck. I sighed, thinking about what to say. "Do you watch the news?" I asked. She looked at me with a confused look that basically said 'what does that have to do with anything?'

"Just answer the question. It has to do with my explanation." I said when she continued to look at me strange.

Slowly, she nodded. Good, we were getting somewhere. "The other day, on the news, one of the local announcers asked for the public's help to find a 3 year old boy named Ryan Smith. I'm the one who found him." realization finally splashed across the cashier's face. Quickly she turned around to look at the cook who was trying to get Ryan to talk about what he was doing in the kitchen.

"Nancy, it's okay, he's with her." The cashier said, nodding her head at me. The cook, Nancy, nodded and took Ryan's hand heading towards the door which exited the kitchen. "Next time, please keep track of your son." Nancy said. I started stuttering, trying to tell her that he wasn't my son, but she wouldn't have it and just walked away, claiming that she needed to get back to work.

It didn't matter that the cook had been kind of rude. Or that the cashier had been annoying. All that mattered was that Ryan was safe. He wasn't taken, or kidnapped, or wandering around on the street, he was here.

I bent down, giving him the biggest hug I had probably given anyone. But then, all that worry was washed over by anger and frustration. He had disappeared and nobody knew where he went. He could have been hurt!

"Ryan. Look at me." I said sternly, trying to get his attention. "Don't ever wander off like that again. Do you hear me? You had me worried sick." I hated talking like that to him, it made me feel like his mother, which, I had to keep reminding myself that I wasn't, but I thought I had lost him.

"I'm sorry Annabweth." Ryan looked like he was about to cry. I must have been harsher than I thought.

"It's okay, you're okay, but promise you won't ever do that again." I told him.

He simply nodded, and then gave me a huge hug. He really was sweet. He knew exactly what to do and what to say all at the right times. And to think, this might be one of the last times that I ever got to see him. The thought made me want to cry. No. I couldn't cry. This was my fault. I let myself get too attached. And now here was the moment we had all been waiting for. The moment that everything had led up to. I knew this day was coming, and yet, I allowed myself to get carried away. I guess deep down I didn't want him to be reunited with his mom.

Speaking of his mom. It was time. Time to let go. "Ryan, you ready to go and see your mom?" I asked. But he looked confused, and almost hurt. Like I was leaving him, which I basically was if Ryan was going to be going home with his mom.

Picking him up, we headed towards the table where Percy and Ryan's mom were still seated at. I just realized something, I didn't even know her name. I really needed to stop calling her "Ryan's mom".

"You found him!" Ryan's mom called out when she spotted us heading towards her. She started running, well not quite running but it was really close to it, to us. But Ryan just leaned closer to me. He seemed scared, not anymore shy, but kinda terrified.

"Ryan, don't you remember me?" His mom asked.

When he didn't respond and only buried his head into my shoulder I said, "I'm sure he does, he probably is just playing shy, why don't you hold him?" I asked his mom, adjusting the boy in my arms so that I could hand him over. She grabbed him eagerly, as if she couldn't wait to have him back in his arms. Ryan, confused, didn't say anything, but instead looked at his mom, strangely.

"Thank you so much for bringing him back to me." Ryan's mom said, looking at Percy and I. "I'm afraid however that I have to take him back home with me. I can pay you for your trouble if you'd like." I couldn't quite pinpoint it, but for some reason I didn't trust Ryan's mom. Maybe it was because she never gave us her name, or the fact that she was so eager to get out of the Meatball Shop.

"That's not necessary." I said smiling, trying to hide my skepticism. "But would it be alright if we visited Ryan every once in a while?"

Her expression hardened at the mention of visiting. Weird. "I'm afraid not. We are only visiting the city, and tomorrow morning my husband, son and I are heading for home."

"Well then would it be alright..." I was never allowed to finish my sentence. Ryan's mom held up her hand, signaling for me to stop speaking.

"Look, I appreciate what you have done for my family and I, but I'm afraid I can't allow you to see or talk to my son after this. Please, don't ask why as I cannot tell you or I will be in big trouble." She seemed sincere, her face begging me to not say any more about the subject. I decided to let the subject though, and didn't say anything. "Now, please say your goodbyes to my son and I will be on my way." She said firmly, while letting Ryan down so that we could say goodbye.

"Hey bud," I said sadly. "Are you excited to go home?"

"But I don't want to go home Annabweth, I want to stay with you." Ryan pouted, he looked like he was about to cry again.

"Don't worry Bud, we'll see each other again." I told him, even though I knew we probably wouldn't. Before I could burst into tears, I gave him one big last hug, and told him to go and say bye to Percy. 20 minutes later, after saying their goodbyes to everyone, Ryan and his mom were on their way back home.

"Now that was weird." Percy said. We had finally all sat down to discuss the events of the afternoon, snacking on the food we had gotten an hour ago.

"I don't like her." I said miserably. "She didn't even tell us her name."

"Me neither." Grover said. "Something was off about that woman. Did she tell you why he was left at Target in the first place?"

Percy just shook his head saying "No, all I got was 'he wandered off and I guess I forgot about him.'"

Piper looked dumbfounded. "What mother would forget about her child and not go look for him when she finally did remember? It really doesn't make sense."

"What are we going to do about it though? Ryan was finally reunited with his parents, where he belonged. He's in good hands." I nodded in agreement and for the next three weeks, the only way I got through the day was telling myself those four words. "He's in good hands. He's in good hands. He's in good hands."

In fact that's what I kept telling myself for the next three weeks. Then the strangest thing happened.

3 weeks later, at Percy and Grover's apartment

"Annabeth, you have got to stop thinking about him. He's with his mom now and we really can't do anything about it." Percy told me one afternoon. I often found myself at their apartment to help console me on missing Ryan so much. But what was I to do? I had no phone number, no address, not even the name of his mom. For some reason I was taking this a lot harder than I should have. I needed to calm down. Taking a deep breath and drying my eyes from the tears that had started to form, I said "you're right, he is home, with his parents. He's probably at the park, not even remembering us." Percy looked at me, surprised that I had agreed with him. I just shyly smirked. He was cute when he was confused.

"Percy will you get that for me?" Grover called from the kitchen.

"Get what?" Percy called back.

"The door! I heard the doorbell." Grover yelled.

"Okay!" Percy yelled back, heading for the door. While he did that, I just sat there, thinking. Why was I spending so much time thinking about Ryan? I had a job, friends, and I was happy. Well, happy enough. Maybe I should just focus on work. I did have a big project due soon, but I could never seem to focus enough get it done. Heck, I hadn't even remotely started on it. That was always something that Ryan helped me out with. He'd give me ideas, we'd draw the buildings together, and then I'd transfer it to my blueprints and turn them into my boss. Heck, now that I thought about it, during those two months, I had gotten more work done than I had probably done in my entire career. Okay, so maybe not that much, but close enough.

I was jostled from my thoughts when I heard someone yell something that sounded like "Ryan". Before I could think about it, I ran straight for the door. I could feel my eyes widen when I saw who was there. It was Ryan, in tears...

 **You guys weren't expecting that now were you? I've got one more plot twist and then I think the story will come to a close. So like maybe 10 or so chapters left. Sorry about the grammatical errors, I'm tired so yeah. Review!**


End file.
